Olga Abramova: Biathlete Biography

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:39

Abramova Olga Valerievna was born on September 15, 1988 in the Ulyanovsk region. The mother of the future athlete is a cross-country skiing coach, it is not surprising that at the age of 5 the girl got up on skis. Initially, Olga was engaged in skiing, she came to biathlon later.

After graduating from school, the girl entered the medical for dental technology. She studied for a year, but already at that time traveling and gathering took up most of her time. As a result, a year later, the teachers offered her to transfer to the nursing faculty, where the requirements were lower. At that moment, it became clear - you must either choose professional sports, or get a profession outside the world of competition. When an offer was received to study at an Olympic reserve school, Olga Abramova made her choice in favor of sports.

Biathlon: Beginning

Olga Abramova, as a biathlete, did not immediately begin to occupy the highest steps of the podium. The best result for the athlete was the bronze won in the pursuit race at the Russian Cup in 2009. This was clearly not enough to get into not only the main team, but even the reserve team - many of her colleagues showed resultshigher. On top of that, Olga was frustrated by the lack of an “individual approach” to her as an athlete from other coaches. She experienced great difficulties with shooting, she did not deal with this problem on her own, the results fell, and resentment against the coaches, and at the same time for the entire team, grew.

At this time, a new coach, Nadezhda Alexandrovna Belova, comes to work under a contract. She was able to find a common language with the athlete, a trusting relationship arose between them, and the individual work so necessary for Olga was carried out. When the coach returned to Ukraine, the biathlete often called her up, consulted about training and acutely felt the lack of what she would later call “human attitude towards the athlete.”

Transition to the national team of Ukraine

Abramova Olga admits in an interview that her transfer to the Ukrainian national team was due to two components - the desire to work specifically with coach Belova and the understanding that she would not expect high results in the Russian national team. Yes, and this team still had to get into, which, given the results of the biathlete, was not guaranteed. But Olga Abramova did not want to quit biathlon. When a free week appeared after the training camp, Olga, without advertising it, quit and went to work in the Ukrainian national team. She did not explain to the coaching staff or warn them about her departure. The girl called the manager of the youth team and asked him to return the ticket. And only when asked why she said that she had decided to play for another country. After that, she wrote a letter of resignation of her own free will,handed over inventory and left the country. However, no one began to restrain, persuade or be interested in the reasons for such a decision of the girl.

Doping test positive

After moving to the national team of a new country, Olga had an unpleasant discovery - she did not expect such competition for a place in the Ukrainian team. Yulia Jima, Semerenko's sister, showed good results, against the background of which Olga's already modest results faded. But the girl did not give up and decided to fight for her place in the sun. It was not possible to gain a foothold in the main team - Olga Abramova was considered a promising athlete, but she could not rise above this status. But her dreams of medals never left her.

At the end of 2016, Olga Abramova was disqualified for using the illegal drug meldonium. The athlete herself denied the use of doping. But in the end she was suspended from the competition for one year; after a year of disqualification, Olga returns to the big sport.

Private life

The athlete has been dating former Russian biathlete Timofey Lapshin for a long time (now Timofey plays for the South Korean national team).

Interesting fact: it was Timofey who most of all dissuaded Olga from moving to the Ukrainian national team. At the moment, Timofey is the husband of an athlete. The couple wants children, but in connection with the year of Olga's absence due to disqualification, they decided to postpone this issue for the time being - inthe team is fiercely competitive, it is impossible to fall out of the cage.

Olga estimates her performance in professional sports at a maximum of 10%. At the moment, if we consider the classic winter biathlon, her best results in her career remain the very bronze of the Russian Biathlon Cup. Things are going better in summer biathlon - there Olga was able to become a three-time world champion. It remains to wish the 30-year-old athlete realization of herself in the next season and long-awaited victories.