In the Russian team, the preparation for the winter season is in full swing. Groups of Borodavko, Sorin and Perevozchikov conduct training camps and test their form at roller skiing competitions, and if not for Sergey Ustyugov, the fans could be completely bored … But the well-known skier, who previously refused centralized training as part of the national team, does not allow them to do this yet .

For the first time in his career, a 30-year-old athlete was not allowed to compete. What’s the matter?

“The first time didn’t work”

In the middle of the summer, Ustyugov, originally attached to the group of coach Yegor Sorin, left for self-training. For fans uninitiated in details, this situation could seem like a scandal, but, in fact, it was commonplace. Working with an Olympic champion in the 2022 relay is a challenge for any mentor. So Sorin must have exhaled after breaking up with Ustyugov, although there was no full-fledged work between them – Sergey trained according to the plans of the German specialist Markus Kramer.

The 30-year-old athlete continued training with the support of Khanty-Mansiysk and disappeared from the radar for a while. Everyone was waiting for him, like other team leaders, at the Russian Summer Championship in Tyumen in mid-September. However, the veteran of the national team failed to show his readiness in this tournament.

Photo: © FLGR

Ustyugov fell ill a few days before the start and missed all the races. Fortunately, the ailment quickly passed, and already on October 8, the athlete took part in the open competitions in roller skiing in Izhevsk. In the race with a separate start for 14 km free style, the skier took first place, ahead of the closest pursuer Yegor Trefilov by 1.8 seconds. Not a bad result, considering that Sergey was the oldest participant in the competition.

It seemed that for the first time in a long time, a native of Mezhdurechensk would be able to enter the season without injury. But medical problems again intervened. This time Sergey failed to pass the commission:

– Probably, this is the first time when the first time did not work out. But it’s good that there is still time to be examined,” the skier wrote in his Telegram channel.

What the problem is is still unknown, but one gets the feeling that someone has cursed our athlete. Or is it all about breaking the rules?

The usual thing

The point is that Ustyugov’s problems are systematic. At the beginning or during the season, illness or injury is an annual reality for a Russian, rather than an exception. Of all our backbone of the team, he suffers most from all sorts of ailments.

At the start of the 2016/17 winter season, the skier suffered a shoulder injury in training and missed the stage in Finnish Kuusamo. True, in Lillehammer he was already in order and even became the third in the individual race. And the season itself turned out to be triumphant for him thanks to the victory at the Tour de Ski and two gold medals at the World Championships in Lahti. But it was perhaps the most solid season of his career.

Photo: © Giovanni Auletta/Agence Zoom / Stringer / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

The following year, the athlete experienced a dramatic non-admission to the Olympics, after a season he missed almost all the races before the Christmas Tour de Ski, and in the winter of 2019/20 he started hard, but later he was again crippled by illness.

In the pre-Olympic season 2020/21, Sergey took 38th place in the overall World Cup standings, speaking only at the Swedish stages. All because of the damn coronavirus, which kept our skier out of action until the races in Lahti at the end of January 2021.

So now we should not be surprised at the next problems of our skier. But conclusions, obviously, Ustyugov does not draw. Throughout his career, experts, including our team leader Elena Vyalbe, emphasize that for Sergey, his own comfort is more important than the interests of the team. This was especially true of restorative procedures, which he often neglected.

“His character wins over his mind. You can’t be a leader if you don’t do anything about it! You just have to climb out of your skin, but Seryoga does not do this! He does some ridiculous things, from which he himself suffers later, – Elena Valeryevna said back in 2020.

Could he have avoided problems this season by staying with Sorin’s team? Hardly. Apparently, the whole point is in the approach, which simply does not allow Ustyugov to achieve the maximum from his body.