Yulia Stupak: There are girls on World Cup circuit who   always hit you poles, always aggressive

Yulia Stupak: There are girls on World Cup circuit who always hit you poles, always aggressive

Leaders, Newsfeed
We continued publish our notes from a recent interview with Yulia Stupak. For " ease of digestion ", her thoughts & tales were grouped thematically (in reality one gets to hear Ms.Stupak's opinion on everything at once - and then back again. Absolutely charming if you are present but quite impossible to convey verbatim) Training: " I am walking on a knife’s edge - exploring my maximum in each and every training cycle yet trying not to overdo it. That’s how you grow and find new strength. Functional readiness, technique - everything. The latter one is constantly evolving - Markus ( Cramer) works a lot with me to better my style - even if microscopically, little by little. In the Olympic season the stakes are much, much higher than in…
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Russians And Italians Train Under German Coach In Estonia

Russians And Italians Train Under German Coach In Estonia

Leaders, Newsfeed
Russian and Italian skiers train under German coach - in Estonia. We-guess that's what it takes to beat Norwegians in 2021: pulling together forces in a joint effort. Markus Cramer Group led by Sergey Ustiugov and Yulia Belorukova and " reinforced " by Federico Pellegrino and Francesco De Fabiani just have landed in Otepää, Estonia for a long training camp. "Otepää is a fantastic place for summer training, it has everything: good lodgings, well-equipped gym, playground for team sports- most importantly, it has long safe roads with the right uphill/ downhill difficulty. Plus the weather is fantastic- except for mosquitoes but skiers don't feel them, only coaches do.." says Cramer. Worth noting that the mixed dream-team is using IDT rollerskis, provided by their sponsor - that happen to be Norwegian.
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Yulia Belorukova Becomes Mother! She’s First To Do So In Russian Team

Yulia Belorukova Becomes Mother! She’s First To Do So In Russian Team

Newsfeed, Trivia
Yulia Belorukova just became a mother of boy happy parents named Arseniy! In her Instagram post announcing the news she's calling the baby " Our Christmas angel". As all remember, the Russian Orthdox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7th. https://www.instagram.com/p/B7BMU0fKiSl/ Belorukova, 24, has been dating her husband-to-be, then Team Russia skier Nikita Stupak for 6 years. In interview with with The Dailyskier last summer Yulia called Nikita, "quite simply, the most important person in my life" Belorukova, who won two bronze medals at the Pyeongchang Olympics, will most probably become the first baby mother on the international circuit this season - in our conversation Yulia hid no desire of coming back to competitive skiing as soon as reasonable. Will Yulia and baby Arseniy also become users of the so-called "baby…
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Squires,  Team Russia Know-How

Squires, Team Russia Know-How

Newsfeed, Training & Outfitting
Well, it isn't really. Coaches who maintain their form were training alongside active athletes for yonks. A squire - or " coach who trains along" - fulfills many roles including conducting training sessions  , leading by example ( how about 5 hour mountain trekking or equally long biking? ) and to some, namely team leaders, being quasi-personal coach. It could be argued that recent successes of both Team Slovenia and Team GB are linked to that active coaching system. But it's the Russians who polished the system and in some ways took a step further in the last couple of years. Here's how it works: [caption id="attachment_12791" align="alignnone" width="1920"] ...it's all started with Markus Cramer arrival to Team Russia. First order of things was to get him an interpreter. By…
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Markus Cramer  Explains What Russian Skiers Got To Know By Working With Him – And What He Learned From Them

Markus Cramer Explains What Russian Skiers Got To Know By Working With Him – And What He Learned From Them

Leaders, Newsfeed
This is Part II of Conversations with Markus Cramer where a German specialist with no previous experience of working with the Russians until a few years ago explains how is it to manage what is now 12 of them , help them to win - and simply have a good time together. In his own words: [caption id="attachment_12081" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Training large groups is much harder than training a few top skiers - especially when you believe in individual approach. But with the right atmosphere in the team, it's doable [/caption] [caption id="attachment_12085" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Establishing and maintaining good atmosphere in a team is extremely important. They spend 300 days a year training and competing. Occasional frustrations are natural - but you could and should offset that by introducing an…
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