21-year-old Vladimir Maslennikov from the city of Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk Region, brought our Olympic team a bronze medal in the final of air rifle shooting. We can say that the Ural athlete made himself a birthday present – on August 17 he will turn 22 years old.
Vladimir Maslennikov’s coach Vyacheslav Kutkin from Lesnoy:
– Vladimir is a very calm, persistent and self-confident person, he never stops making efforts until he achieves a result. He always keeps his inner calm and “keeps his face” in front of his opponent. These are very important qualities in our sport: we even carry out the selection according to these criteria, and it is very tough in shooting!
The first time Vladimir “got acquainted” with weapons at the age of 4 – his dad (CCM in shooting) and my good friend brought him to me. Vladimir shot, and, of course, he did not have brilliant results – no one succeeds right away. You need to work hard, like Vladimir. Then, in 2004, he was officially enrolled in my group. I was his first coach. When he was 12 years old, it already became clear that Vladimir would achieve a lot in shooting. Since 2009, he passed the standards for a master of sports and was enrolled in the youth team.
Vladimir is a non-public person and very modest – this is evident from how short he was after winning the Olympics (“I dedicate a medal to my little town Lesnoy!” – said Maslennikov, having won the medal. – Approx. WD). If you ask him to wait, he will sit and wait as long as necessary. And if you forget about him, you will fall asleep on the couch …
But in his native Forest, he is a very famous athlete, our pride. It does a lot to popularize shooting in the city, because Lesnoy is the city of Olympians (we have a joke that Lesnoy has the largest number of Olympians per capita). Vladimir Maslennikov conducts trainings for young athletes, travels around the region and communicates with young people.
I was not with him at the Olympics (now I am at other competitions), and did not even communicate with Maslennikov: they have a very busy schedule. The athletes’ trainings were adjusted, they differ in intensity from ours: in Lesnoye we have one training session every day, plus we work a lot with weapons in extra time: as a musician tunes a violin, so we handle a rifle.
With Ksenia Perova (an athlete from Lesnoye, a champion in archery, won silver at the Olympics in Rio), unfortunately, they did not intersect at the Olympics: too busy schedules and live far from each other. But we are rooting for each other!
Recently Vladimir passed his license and bought a car. He also plans to get an education: to enter the Olympic reserve school. As soon as he returns from the Olympics, I think he will go on vacation with his wife Anna, who is waiting for him in Lesnoye. And then he will train hard again and prepare for the national championship, which takes place every four years, between the Olympics. We also, of course, plan to get to the next Olympics. In our sport, age is not so important: for example, this year the oldest shooter was 55 years old. Experience and stability come with age.
Although Vladimir has no problems with this anyway: he has excellent stability by nature, few athletes can hold a weapon like that. I can immediately determine where Maslennikov’s results are and where not. Plus diligence and perseverance – and now Vladimir is an Olympic champion!