Medals on two sides: pressure on Korostelev and Nepryaeva is increasing

Russian skiers Daria Nepryaeva and Savely Korostelev have been admitted to the 2026 Olympics and are preparing for the last official starts before traveling to the World Cup Games in Goms, Switzerland. These competitions bring together a stellar cast of participants, and based on their results, it will be possible to adjust Olympic ambitions. However, many of our fans and experts decided everything in advance. The neutrals, who have never managed to finish on the podium in nine international races at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, are demanding Olympic medals. A different result will probably be regarded as a failure, so in two or three weeks the young Russians will have to compete on the Val di Fiemme tracks under enormous pressure.

All races or not

After the multi-day Tour de Ski, in which Daria and Savely completed the minimum task, finishing in the top 10 overall, the Russian skiers took part in the classic cut at the World Cup in Oberhof. There, in the absence of many strong rivals, Korostelev showed the fifth time, and Nepryaeva — the 16th.

At the same time, our compatriots deliberately missed the sprint, which they have failed three times in the last five weeks. If they do not reach the shortest classic distance next Saturday at the stage in Goms, this may be an indirect confirmation of the strategic decision not to disperse forces at the 2026 Games in a discipline in which there is little chance of even qualifying. Theoretically, this could give the Olympics four days of rest between skiathlon (February 7-8) and 10 km speed skating (February 12-13).

— Will they run all the distances at the Olympics? We're still thinking. Most likely, yes, all the distance races that will be allowed will run," said Egor Sorin, the athletes' coach, in an interview with Sport24. "It's still under discussion. A lot will depend on how many of our team's staff will gain access to the stadium and Olympic accreditations. After that, we will make final decisions. The issue of my presence is currently under discussion. I definitely won't have Olympic accreditation. And I can't say for sure yet whether I will go to the Olympics or not. To be honest, I hadn't even thought about the invitation from the IOC. Everything went on as usual. As it turned out, it turned out that way.

Sorin's appearance without accreditation at the Tour de Ski caused a minor scandal, provoked by the Ukrainian coaching staff and Norwegian skier Erik Valnes. At the 2026 Olympics, the rules for access to facilities will be stricter, so the lack of the usual coach support will be an additional challenge for Nepryaeva and Korostelev.

The question arises: how appropriate is it to demand medals from our athletes at the Olympics? Despite the fact that so far, by and large, they have never managed to give battle to the leaders of world skiing. Perhaps it will be possible in Homs in the Sunday mass start of the 20 km classic. Almost the entire color of the world's skis is going to start in it. Norwegian tops Johannes Klebo, Harald Amundsen and Emil Iversen were announced for the men. The women won't have Heidi Weng, Kristin Schystad, Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson, but the competition will still increase compared to Oberhof.

Our athletes themselves have not yet shown any feelings against the background of very serious pressure, although they have limited communication with the media. Korostelev reacted to the news about the approval of the Olympic bid by the IOC admission commission in one word on social networks.: "Confirmed." And a short video in which the two of them and Nepryaeva ride down a snowy slope on the same ice rink (which aggravated rumors about informal relations between our neutrals).

Getting closer to the first: Korostelev almost won his first World Cup medal

Our athlete was always 10 seconds away from the top three

A lot of optimism

Of course, it's stupid to go to the main start of the fourth anniversary and not set yourself the most difficult tasks. Especially in the situation of Nepryaeva and Korostelev, who at the beginning of this season were sure that the 2026 Games would be held without them (Daria even cried about it on social media), and then overcame many adversities on the way to the Olympic dream. However, now our neutrals are being driven to Olympic medals based solely on faith in the highest potential and level of domestic ski racing. Although there is no objective confirmation of our claims to the podium in Val di Fiemme yet.

"Everyone saw that Savely and Daria were gradually adapting to higher speeds," Yuri Borodavko, the head coach of the Russian national team, told Izvestia. — Athletes compete, they have become more stable psychologically and adapted to high speeds. Therefore, we will wait for good results, both in Homs and at the Games. Everyone wants to get on the bedside table, as athletes say. Therefore, let's not run ahead of the locomotive, let's wait for the starts.

There are now many more optimists in Russia who are convinced that Nepryaeva and Korostelev will compete for medals in every OI-2026 race. This is great in terms of supporting our athletes — they really need it now. But it seems very premature to include ski awards in the Olympic medal plan. As the experience of Paris 2024 has shown, even successful starts at the World Cups in the conditions of a limited application by our national team do not guarantee anything at all. Therefore, before planning to defeat the Norwegians, it would be nice to win against them in a face—to-face fight at least once, for example, on the upcoming Sunday in Homs.

The World Cup stages in alpine skiing, luge, snowboarding and freestyle skiing will also take place this weekend. In luge, all three Russians with the status, including two future Olympians, were announced for the KM stage in Winterberg (January 24-25). It's about Pavel Repilov and Daria Olesik. At the same time, Pavel and Daria are unlikely to be able to claim medals in Germany. So far, their best achievements on the KM stages are getting into the top 10 for Olesik and into the top 15 for Pavel.

In alpine skiing, Ekaterina Tkachenko and Yulia Pleshkova competed at the KM stages this week, but whether they will be in the Czech Republic is a big question. This country is not in a hurry to accept Russians yet. Semyon Efimov (slalom) was able to qualify for the KM stages, but he is not on the starting lists in Kitzbuhel. Apparently, the athlete is still waiting for admission from the FIS and the IOC, but our officials are silent.

In freestyle, our athletes no longer have a chance to win the Olympic Games. In this discipline (ski cross) The KM stage takes place in Switzerland (without Russians). Russians have problems with visas in snowboarding, and the stages in Switzerland and Austria are probably without us.