New leader for biathletes

Russian specialist Valery Polkhovsky appointed Belarusian biathlon team’s head coach
Mr. Polkhovsky began his career after graduating from the Omsk Institute of Physical Culture in 1979; he then began training biathletes in his native Novosibirsk Region. In the mid-1980s, he headed the USSR’s youth team and, from 1989-1992, worked in China. Later, Valery was invited to assist Anatoly Khovantsev with the Russian biathlon team, and stayed with them until 1999, helping the squad to win many awards at world championships, and to capture medals at the 1994 and 1998 Olympics.


Valery Polkhovsky

From 2001-2007, Mr. Polkhovsky was chief coach for the Russian women’s team, which won many awards at world championships and at the Olympics. In 2003, Russian women won the Cup of Nations, holding it for three years in a row.

After a break, Valery returned to the team and, in 2010, was appointed coach of Russia’s reserve team. A year later, he replaced Vladimir Barnashov as head coach of all Russian teams. Following the 2011/12 season’s results, the post of head coach was abolished and Mr. Polkhovsky left the team. In April 2013, he was appointed advisor to the Russian biathlon team’s President, Mikhail Prokhorov. Last season, he was coach-consultant for the Kazakh team.

Mr. Polkhovsky also helped train the present head of the Belarusian Biathlon Club, Sergey Bulygin, who won 1984 Olympic gold in Sarajevo.

Mr. Polkhovsky (celebrating his 63rd birthday on August 11th) will replace Andrian Tsibulsky as the Belarusian team’s head coach. Andrian will continue his career at the Belarusian Biathlon Federation.

By Alexey Grishin
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