Yelena Välbe

Yelena Valeryevna Välbe is a Russian former cross-country skier. She won a record 14 gold medals at the FIS World Championships, including all five golds in the [1997 International Ski and Snowboard Federation|FIS Nordic World Ski Championships|1997 edition]. She also won three Olympic gold medals and four bronze medals in various Winter Olympic Games as well as four World Cup Crystal Globes.
In 2004, she lost when she ran for president of the Russian Ski Racing Federation. Välbe was later elected President of the Russian Cross-Country Ski Association and has been in that position since 2010, and manager of the Russian National Cross-Country Team since 2012.
She was elected to the FIS Council in 2021. But after she supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a number of European Ski Federations objected to her participation in the 2022 election, and Välbe's nomination was publicly opposed by the representatives of Sweden, Poland, and Finland. As a result, she was removed from the FIS Council after garnering the fewest votes of 23 candidates. In 2022, Välbe supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that: "we are not at war with Ukraine and no one attacked it."

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Career

Summary

At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, Välbe won fourteen gold, and three silver medals, including all five golds at the 1997 championships in Trondheim. She also won three gold and four bronze medals in various Winter Olympic Games as well as the FIS Cross-Country World Cup five times. At the 1992 Winter Olympics, she entered in every competition in cross-country skiing and medaled in all of them.

After retirement

In 2004, she lost when she ran for president of the Russian Ski Racing Federation. In 2010, Välbe was elected as President of the Russian Cross-Country Ski Association. In 2012, she got the position of manager for the Russian Cross-Country Team towards the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. She was also manager for the Russian team during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Välbe was elected to the FIS Council in 2021, but after she supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a number of European Ski Federations objected to her participation in the 2022 election, and Välbe's nomination was publicly opposed by the representatives of Sweden, Poland, and Finland. As a result, she was removed from the position after garnering the fewest votes of all 23 candidates.

Political career

Välbe was a member of the political council of Vladimir Putin's United Russia party in the State Duma from the regional branch, and ran in the 2021 Russian legislative election on the United Russia party list. She won in the United Russia primaries and was leader of United Russia's territorial group No. 29, which included the Vladimir and Ivanovo Oblasts. Having won the elections, she refused to be a deputy, and the Central Election Commission transferred her mandate to Aleksey Govyrin. She eventually withdrew her candidacy.
In 2023, Välbe joined the PutinTeam, whose members supported Vladimir Putin's nomination for the 2024 Russian presidential election.

Views

In 2022, Välbe supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that "we are not at war with Ukraine and no one attacked it."
In January 2023, sports commentator Jan Petter Saltvedt of Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation said that he believes Välbe must now be fired from all sport-related offices going forward. He said: "It is completely reprehensible that a cross-country president makes such statements . Now she is choosing a confrontational line that either shows her internal position is weakened, or she is confident that Russia will be brought back faster than many thought."
In March 2023, Välbe said the following about European politics and the United States.
In November 2023, she said she supported Putin's policies and Russia's war against Ukraine, and was proud that her younger brother had volunteered to fight in the war. In December 2023, she said of Putin: "I love our president madly."
In September 2024, she said that ‘if Russia dropped a bomb in London, Russians would be allowed to attend the Olympics’.

Personal life

Välbe is estranged from her father, Valery Ivanovich Trubitsyn. Her father is Ukrainian-born, and lives in Ukraine.
Explaining her character, she said that as a child, she and her mother Galina Grigorievna Synkova lived with her maternal grandparents. Her maternal grandfather told her: "Don't wait to be hit, hit you in the face first."
Formerly she was married to Estonian cross-country skier Urmas Välbe. Together they had one child the same year they married, Franz, with whom she spent a month and a half in Ukraine in 1988. They separated the year after they married, and divorced in 2005.Istra district in Moscow Oblast.

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Olympic Games

7 medals –

Year	Age	5 km	15 km	Pursuit	30 km	4 × 5 km relay
[Cross-country skiing at the Cross-country skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics\|1992 Winter Olympics\|1992]	23	Bronze	Bronze	Bronze	Bronze	Gold
1994	25	—	6	—	6	Gold
1998	29	—	17	—	5	Gold

World Championships

17 medals –

Year	Age	5 km	10 km classical	10 km freestyle	15 km	Pursuit	30 km	4 × 5 km relay
1989	20		6	Gold	—		Gold	Silver
1991	22	—		Gold	Gold	—	Silver	Gold
1993	24	4			Gold	6	19	Gold
1995	26	4			Silver	12	Gold	Gold
1997	28	Gold			Gold	Gold	Gold	Gold