The world biathlon season has ended, so “Druva” invited Jānis Bēržinus, the technical delegate of the International Biathlon Federation (IBU), who is in charge of material (equipment) control in international competitions, to a conversation.
He spends the biathlon season traveling from one competition to the next, these are World Cup (WK) stages, World Championships, Olympic Games. As he himself says, during the season about 60 competitions have to be ensured so that everything goes according to the requirements.
Impact of Covid
This year, the season was again like before covid – with spectators at all stages. However, J. Bērziņš points out that there has not been such a large influx of fans as before: “Several factors are probably still a bit of a hindrance to this, the covid, which has not disappeared, but, I admit, the energy crisis, which has made the whole of Europe look into their wallets, affects the choice more. Many things are more expensive – fuel, hotels, ticket prices – and fans are starting to calculate whether to go to three or four stages of the World Cup, or only to the World Championship.”
Asked whether those who take care of the event feel the return of the audience, he says that he sees it through the prism of the participants, who behave differently, prepare. Of course, with the return of the spectators to the stadium, there is a completely different aura, it is again a celebration of biathlon, not just a competition. True, there is also a downside to the great support of the spectators in the stadium, because at the moment when thousands of spectators are cheering for their team, the technical staff and referees do not hear anything on the walkie-talkies.
In previous seasons, athletes, team representatives, everyone involved had a strict covid protocol, how about this year? “Absolutely nothing,” says J. Bērziņš. “In this regard, there were small scandals when, for example, in the penultimate stage of the World Cup, the Norwegian biathlete brothers Bo, knowing that the test was positive, still went to the start. There was no protocol, no sanctions, free choice and responsibility of each athlete.”
But in general, the season has passed peacefully, some outbreaks of covid have been recorded in the final stages of the World Cup. Experience shows that traditionally, not only with “Covid-19”, in the stages after the World Championship, the level of responsibility and attention of athletes drops noticeably. At the beginning of the season, everyone is very focused, everyone wants to participate in the World Championship, there is a lot of tension in the teams, but with the European and World Championships, there is relaxation.
A hot shower and a warm blanket
When talking about his working day, Jānis does not hide that it is very long and that he has to spend much more time in the competition arena than the athletes. You should arrive the day before the first start to check whether everything is prepared. On the day of the competition, the technical delegates are the first at the stadium, around seven eight in the morning, but they don’t go back to the hotel until dinner time – seven eight. The whole day is spent in the stadium, despite the weather conditions, mostly on foot, constantly following what is happening, trying to spot mistakes, any attempts to circumvent the rules.
“When you go to the hotel in the evening, you don’t want anything, sometimes even dinner,” says J. Bērziņš. “After a cold day, you want a hot shower and under the covers! Of course, socializing is also sometimes necessary, because the judges change almost every week, they want to talk, you have to respect that.”
In the past season, all PK stages and the World Championship were held in Europe, in places where biathlon is traditionally held. Is it easier to run a competition if people are knowledgeable?
J. Bērziņš points out that this is actually the biggest problem: “One of the mottos in these arenas is that we have been doing it for 30 years! That is the problem, for 30 years something has been done wrong, every year the rules change, but the local workers continue to do everything the old way. They think they know everything because they have done it all their lives, so they have to be impressed on how to do it right.
The complete opposite was the Olympics in China, where the judges were people who had experienced it for the first time. At first, they had no idea where they were, what biathlon was. Together we slowly went through the whole process, which has to be checked, how to do it, but during the day everyone understood everything, and the competition progressed to such a level that their actions can be filmed and shown to the judges in Europe as a tutorial. This once again shows that sometimes it is much easier to teach something from scratch than to retrain.”
We already wrote that there was a great moment in Latvian biathlon this season – 3rd place in the 1+1 relay, won by Baiba Bendika and Andrejs Rastorgujevs. On a busy day, taking care of the competition, do you also have time to follow the events on the track?
“Very minimal,” admits J. Bērziņš. “True, I always find out who the first six will be because I help organize the flower ceremony when the first six are welcomed. It was very nice to see our duet on the podium, it was a big event. It’s somehow customary for Latvians that the beginning of the relays is successful, we are in the lead, and then something doesn’t work until the end, there is no result.”
Set the stage for the new season
The season is over, but that doesn’t mean that the technical delegates have a break until the next season. The inspection of the stadiums for the next season will start immediately, getting acquainted with the changes planned for the stadiums throughout the summer, evaluating how they will work. Athletes prepare for the new season by implementing a certain training program, meanwhile, as J. Bērziņš knows how to say, the IBU breaks prepare the stage for the athletes’ next appearances: “Then it is a lot of work, it takes a lot of time, but it is even more complicated to put together a calendar, starting times, and already in the season at the beginning, information about the next season should be given, because, as you know, in big sports, everything is subordinated to television. The battle for airtime is huge, television stations keep track of the statistics. Those sports with more viewers have priority on the “Eurosport” channel. It is still unknown if any competition has to be postponed by an hour due to some circumstances or canceled altogether, as this season in the last PK stage, when the women’s sprint had to be canceled due to fog. The television program is fully booked a year in advance, it determines everything, but we cannot do without it.”
J. Bērziņš admits that there are always mixed feelings at the end of the season: “It’s a bit unfortunate that the season is over, that it went by so quickly, but I’m glad that everything went well! And it’s no secret that the summer will also pass quickly, soon it will be possible to conclude that the first stage of the World Cup is already here!”
