An interesting interview with Andriy Deryzemlya, of "I haven't given up hope yet, he has to take a leak first. Let's just say I know him and he usually comes 40th, not 3rd" fame (Björn Ferry's response to missing a bronze medal at the World Championships to the Ukrainian) has found its way across the wintersport sites in Eastern Europe. He talks about the problems of the team replacing aging elements and that they have been a long way below their usual performance this season (Dzhima, Pidhrushna and the Semerenko twins have all struggled to be competitive for most of the season, and young talents coming through are either struggling to improve to World Cup level, or are - like Junior World Champion in sprint and pursuit Ekaterina Bekh - Russian imports). He talks about how the Russian domestic calendar is surprisingly well paid so that there are athletes who can make a living competing on the national calendar without the need to move up a level to the international sphere, and as a result you see a lot of Russians who go overseas to race internationally return and compete in Russia once that is over.
The "interesting-to-the-Clinic" section is when he is asked about why the Ukrainians are happy to take a political stand against Russia (boycotting the Uvat' and Khanty-Mansiysk IBU Cup rounds last season, for example) but have been surprisingly quiet when discussing Russia's doping problems. Deryzemlya mentions that he used to talk to people like (Russian coach) Sergey Konovalov about what was happening politically in Ukraine but would not be believed, but on doping he explains that it is preferable to differentiate - he is not against criticising a
team but if an athlete has served their time then singling out them as an individual comes across as baiting, especially given Ukraine's fractious political history with Russia. This is the key bit:
О многих спортсменов и сборных можно дискутировать о допинге. Почему мы не говорим о норвежцев, в которых асма и разрешено принимать препараты? В той же сборной Франции есть люди, которые идут на допинг и заполняют пол-листа разрешенных препаратов. Я не раз сдавал на допинг и пишу: «Употреблял витамин С, витамин Е». А норвежцы, шведы расписывают кучу всего. Мне было неприятно. Поднимался вопрос: астматикам - это профессионалы или уже паралимпийский вид спорта? Тогда сделали запрос по просьбе болгар, кто же все-таки астматикам. И пришла ответ - не поименно, а количественная. 28 людям из топ-30 официально разрешили употреблять препараты от астмы, в том числе россиянам. Что они там принимали - Бог его знает.
He mentions that we don't talk about the Norwegians and asthma drugs, or the French, who where Deryzemlya claims to have been using Vitamins C and E were writing entire lists of the substances they were using. Unfortunately he doesn't say when this particular incident was, but he mentions that at one point the Bulgarian team made a request for information as to who of the competition had clearance for using asthma drugs, and 28 out of the top 30 (in what, Andriy? A given race? A World Cup or IBU Cup overall? A Mass Start startlist?This is the problem, it's hard to take the context of these comments without knowing that) were claiming asthma.
Obviously Deryzemlya had plenty of shade in his time - as that Björn Ferry quote can attest - but it would be interesting to know what he's talking about with regards to the 28 of 30 - and also this interestingly suggests that the Bulgarians are among those who are not abusing the TUE system etc., which is interesting as obviously Anev and Iliev have been plugging away in a decent niche in the midfield for a good few years now.