Borodavko: “I would advise journalists not to provoke Bolshunov and leave him alone”

Senior coach of the Russian national team Yuri Borodavko, in a conversation with Match TV, advised journalists not to provoke three-time Olympic champion Alexander Bolshunov and leave the skier alone.

Earlier, Match TV correspondent Mikhail Gorevanov published a video in which Bolshunov refuses an interview after the classic sprint at the Russian Cup stage in Izhevsk. “You just need to stick Bolshunov somewhere so that there are more ratings,” the athlete noted in a short conversation with a journalist. Bolshunov took fourth place in this race. TV channel commentator Dmitry Guberniev said after this that Bolshunov “doesn’t need to act like a hysteric.”

“I would advise journalists to calm down and not provoke Alexander, to leave him alone. Then everything will be fine. I think Alexander himself will gradually adapt, psychological confidence will come along with the results, and everything will work out. I would not dramatize this situation. We are all human. Someone likes someone, and someone doesn’t like it. There is no point in making any loud statements out of this or resorting to insults, as some journalists do.

“However, no one wanted to offend Alexander.

– Anything is possible. But how it was all presented, and why it was all published in the press, broadcast on air… This is incomprehensible to me. If this happened, then why broadcast it? That is, this is the essence of people, they begin to provoke. If there was no desire to provoke, then this would not have been broadcast. Then it seems that this is being done intentionally,” Borodavko told Match TV.

Watch live broadcasts of the PhosAgro Russian Cup in cross-country skiing and the Alfa-Bank Commonwealth Cup in biathlon on the television channels of the Match group, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.

Open video

• “Bolshunov doesn’t need to act like a hysteric. Who would know our champions if it weren’t for television?” — Guberniev