The birth of a daughter to the famous skiing couple Terentyev almost coincided with Veronica Stepanova’s announcement that she was also preparing to become a mother. The question inevitably arises: if it suddenly turns out that Russian athletes are allowed to participate in the 2026 Games, will the Olympic gold relay four be retained in cross-country skiing? Will Stepanova have time to get back into shape, and most importantly, will she want to?
The fact that skiers have children at the height of their sports career has long been nothing extraordinary. Rather, we are even accustomed to the fact that many athletes take a break after successful Olympic Games - just in order to give birth to a child and return to action for the next Olympic start. It is even more logical to use the period of sports “timelessness” to expand the family, which was the coronavirus for athletes, and then the removal from international competitions. In this regard, Yegor Sorin's group is about to turn into a kind of ski kindergarten. The coach even joked that it was time to think about adding a teacher to the coaching staff.
Sorin himself and his wife Tatyana already have two children: the eldest daughter Sofia was born in March 2020, after which the skier successfully restored her condition, entered the Olympic relay and won a gold medal as part of it. A year and a half later, in June 2023, the couple had a son, Makar. Another participant in the golden relay, Yulia Stupak, who is now training on her own, also became a mother before the 2022 Games: her Arseny was born two years before the Beijing triumph.
The third champion of the 2022 Olympics, Natalya Terentyeva (formerly Nepryaeva), is also known to be planning to return to the sport after the birth of her daughter Vasilisa. The athlete’s mother has already said this, and she herself, already pregnant, continued to come to training camps and carry out the workload that was feasible for herself. Yegor Sorin was careful not to guess how quickly this return could happen. He noted that any planning for athletes who go on maternity leave is, to a certain extent, pointless, since the mood and well-being of a young mother can change several times a day, and radically.
“We, of course, discussed possible options with Natasha, but from the experience of Tatyana Sorina’s return after the birth of our second child, I realized that it makes no sense to make concrete plans in this regard. There is an understanding of how to build a load in order to prepare the body for serious work, but, I repeat, we are not talking about specific dates yet,” the specialist said. Nevertheless, he expressed hope that Terentyeva will be able to take part in the February or March competitions this season. But only if no force majeure circumstances arise during preparation.
“If you force your preparation, you can make a lot of mistakes that will be difficult to correct later. The most difficult thing in this process is to return to the required volumes without harming your own condition. All athletes are ambitious, trying to quickly get into shape, as they say, “beating their hoofs,” especially when they train in a strong group and every day they see how those who are younger plow. Accordingly, the risk of injury increases,” Sorin explained. According to him, there have already been sad experiences in this regard. Last season, his wife was eager to get back into action as quickly as possible and start competing on equal terms with the leaders. As a result, an injury occurred.
Terentyeva behaved wiser. She immediately warned the coach that she did not intend to set any goals for herself this season in terms of results - it was much more important to fully restore her functional state and the ability to withstand heavy loads. During her pregnancy, Natalya spent three full training camps with the team, but did not go to the very last one - in Tsakhkadzor. Already at a late stage, she decided not to take risks and not go to the mountains.
Against this background, the information that Veronika Stepanova, the fourth from the Olympic relay, is also expecting a child, became quite sudden, not only for the fans, but also for the coach. It is clear that one can only congratulate a woman with such changes in her life, but since we are not talking about an ordinary athlete, one cannot help but wonder: how quickly will Stepanova be able to return to the ski track, and most importantly, will she want to? Until now, her sporting intentions (including an online appeal to the legendary Norwegian Johaug: “Just wait for my return, Teresa!”) looked more like self-PR, a desire to once again attract attention to herself - and not only through sports performances.
But Sorin is nevertheless convinced: even if Russian athletes suddenly get the opportunity to go to the Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in a year and a half, Veronica may well have time to restore competitive condition. In this regard, the coach relies on the already existing experience of his wife Tatyana: eight months after the birth of her first child, she showed one of her best career results on the ski track, taking second place at the World Cup. Stepanova now continues to train on her own, but refused to go with the group to a high-altitude training camp in Tsakhkadzor, so as not to expose herself to unnecessary risk.
If we talk about Sorin’s wards as a whole, on September 1 the whole group returns to Tyumen to prepare on the spot for the summer Russian championship. Next, standard preparation is planned: an October training camp in Sochi and a trip to the first snow in Khanty-Mansiysk.
