Everyone to Skis!: Skiing in Russia and the Rise of Soviet Biathlon

Afterword

Afterword Just three months after the closing ceremonies at the 1988 Calgary Olympics , President of the United States Ronald Reagan received a standing ovation as he entered Moscow State University’s main auditorium. He was in the Soviet Union at the behest of Mikhail Gorbachev for a series of wide-ranging discussions on bilateral treaties and strategic arms limitations . Addressing the assembly from a stage beneath a huge bust of Lenin and a red-and-gold banner emblazoned with the hammer and sickle, Reagan was interrupted frequently with applause during his lecture on the importance of freedom of thought and information. “It was a very good speech, filled with humor,” one student told Reuters. “Really, I like your president very much. It’s very rare for a small man like me to meet a president .”1 Reagan’s visit to the Soviet Union changed the perception of the citizenry toward the United States dramatically: by the end of his trip, over half the Muscovite population indicated in response to a poll that they admired Reagan more after his visit. The threat posed by the United States had diminished considerably in just a few short days, as had the reason for blind allegiance to the Soviet regime. Although it would be simplistic to attribute the demise of the USSR to Reagan’s appearance before a Soviet audience, it is indicative of a major paradigm shift in the country, one that had significant impact. In less than a year, elections of representatives to the Congress of People’s Deputies, initially promulgated by Gorbachev himself, ushered in a period of radical political democratization, first in the Soviet Union and then in Eastern Europe: in May of 1989, the barbwire on the border separating Hungary from Austria came down; on 4 June, Solidarity swept national elections in Poland; on 9 November, the Berlin Wall was dismantled; and on 25 December, the overthrown ruler of Romania, Nicolae Ceauşescu, was executed. The disintegration of the entire Soviet bloc was now close at hand. By the second half of 1989, the parties in favor of radical change in the Soviet Union had left the more conservative 284 EVERYONE TO SKIS! Gorbachev far behind. His former allies were now backing Boris Yeltsin, an unstinting reformer who called for the very abolition of the USSR’s political system. From 1990 through 1991, two major crises faced the Soviet Union: reviving the economy and keeping the union together, neither of which Gorbachev was able to resolve. On 21 December 1991, eleven of the Soviet republics issued a statement creating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to replace the USSR. Four days later, Gorbachev resigned as president of the now defunct Soviet Union.2 Yet the dissolution of the USSR had little effect on the elite skiers who came of age under the Soviet regime. At the 1992 Albertville Olympics, which opened six weeks after Gorbachev left office, the women of Russia’s Unified Team performed magnificently. In the first-ever biathlon events for women, athletes from the CIS placed third in the 3 x 7.5-kilometer relay , and they took home a total of three individual medals: Anfisa Reztsova won gold in the 7.5-kilometer sprint, followed by Elena Belova for the bronze; and Svetlana Pecherskaia placed second in the 15-kilometer race. In special cross-country skiing, Russian women accounted for eight out a possible twelve individual medals. In her fifth Olympics, the ageless Raisa Smetanina ran the second leg for the CIS team’s gold medal performance in the 4 x 5-kilometer relay. In men’s biathlon, less than twenty-three seconds was the margin between reunified German gold and post-Soviet Russian silver in the 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay, ending a gold medal streak that had endured since the 1968 Grenoble Winter Games. Nonetheless, Evgenii Redkin posted a first-place finish in the 20-kilometer individual race.3 Medals won by Russian athletes at the 1992 Winter Olympics belong to the CIS in name only: the awards redound to the credit of the incredibly successful Soviet sports juggernaut, its many flaws notwithstanding . Certainly, the Soviet regime’s decades-long commitment to crosscountry skiing laid the groundwork for Russia’s continued excellence in skiing and biathlon. Subsequent to dissolution, Russia has maintained its position as a potent force at International Ski Federation (FIS) competitions , winning a total of seventy-one medals at Nordic World Championship cross-country skiing events from 1993 through...