Dzinara Alimbekava | The Belarusian Phenom | Динара Алимбекова

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https://www.sb.by/articles/prosto-byt-luchshey.html

https://www.nordicmag.info/biathlon-dzinara-alimbekava-a-deja-le-regard-tourne-vers-la-saison-olympique-0531/

6 World Cup medals, her first world cup victory, the U25 Blue Bib champion. Dzinara Alimbekava surprised biathlon fans when she burst onto the scene in the early part of the 2020/2021 season.

On its surface this story seems cliche: A classic story of a young athlete coming into her own, earning confidence and setting up her pursuit of an olympic medal and biathlon immortality.

But the crazy thing about Alimbekava is she already has an olympic gold medal. At 25 years old she has achieved more than most biathletes could dream. In today’s video we will explore the career of Dzinara Alimbekava figure out why it seemed like she came out of nowhere this season and explore what the future hold for this young phenom.

Over the next few years, Alimbekava would grow into the youth category and earn impressive results at the Youth level with several top 10 finishes in non-team events and even delighted home fans with a youth relay victory on her home course of Minsk Raubici in 2015.

After diving deeper into her best performances, it was clear that Alimbekava was relying on her fast skiing as her means of success.

She was able to beat out her older teammates and secure a stable spot on the Belarussian World Cup team, becoming a regular just in time to qualify for the 2018 olympics in PyeongChang.

There was a lot of Belarussian hype at the 23rd Olympiad in South Korea. Biathlon legend Darya Domracheva had announced this would be her final season.

The Women’s 4x6k Relay. Alimbekava was tagged in 5th place, 21 seconds from the lead. With Domracheva anchoring for Belarus, all Alimekava needed to do was keep the lead close and hand off within striking distance. After battling the wind, Alimbekava was able to do just that: She hit all her targets with only 3 spares and handed off in 4th place only 17 seconds back. Obviously Domracheva would be able to bring the Belarussians into the lead and claim victory in Pyeongchang.

In an interview with Belarus Today Dnaria recalls not feeling like the Olympic gold was hers, but Belarus’

Regardless of how her personal feelings towards the medal Belarussian fans and coaches were excited to see what this medal could do for an athlete such as Alimbekava.

Over the next 2 seasons, Dinara would struggle. Averaged 50th place in non-team events. She would shoot a mediocre 80% and skied 4.5% slower than the average skier.

Culminating in a devastating finish to the 19-20 season where she finished the last three races of the season in 86th, 72nd and 88th.

Honestly considering how popular biathlon is in Belarus because of Domracheva, it’s honestly a miracle some up and coming junior athlete didn’t take Dinara’s spot on the World Cup circuit.

It was later reported that Alimbekava’s periosteum was hurting and preventing her legs from running. The best conclusion I can make from this report is she probably had what is known as compartment syndrome.

For cross country skiers, the skating motion has been known to cause compartment syndrome in the shins of developing athletes. Surgery can be done to help relieve the pain however, there is some controversy over the effectiveness of the treatment.

In what might be the most incredible turnaround in Biathlon history, Dinara’s first race after placing 88th in the Kontiolahti sprint to finish out the 2019/2020 season, she finished 8th to start the new season: Collecting her first top 10 ski time of her career. Dinaria would follow up her impressive result with 5 consecutive top 10 results and her first World Cup Podium in the Hochfilzen Sprint.

And the stats tell a similar tale. When looking at Dinara’s shooting percentage this season, There wasn’t much change. Improving from 80% to 83% on average. But the skiing is where the most ground was made: In one season she went from skiing 7.5% slower than the top 10 to only skiing 1.1% slower. That’s a difference of a minute over the course of a 7.5k sprint! On the World Cup, that can be the difference of 30 places! Just insane!

Dinara would go on to win the inaugural “Blue Bib”, The prize given to the best athlete under 25 and finish the season in 7th place overall, an absurd 69 places higher than the prior season.

So what does the future hold for Alimbekava? Will she be able to peak in Beijing and earn another gold? Will she follow in the footsteps of her former teammate and put Belarusian biathlon back on the map? Only time will tell.

My prediction is that Alimbekava is here to stay. The development strategy is working for Belarus. All signs point to us seeing much more of Dnaria Alimbekava in the future.

Видео Dzinara Alimbekava | The Belarusian Phenom | Динара Алимбекова канала Brian Halligan