Yelena Välbe

Yelena Valeryevna Välbe (Елена Валерьевна Вяльбе, née Trubitsyna; born 20 April 1968) is a Russian former cross-country skier. She won a record 14 gold medals (5 in relays) at the FIS World Championships, including all five golds in the 1997 edition. She also won three Olympic gold medals (all in relays) 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."

Summary
At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, Välbe won fourteen gold (1989: 10 km freestyle, 30 km; 1991: 10 km, 15 km, 4 × 5 km relay; 1993: 15 km, 4 × 5 km relay; 1995: 30 km, 4 × 5 km relay), and three silver medals (1989: 4 × 5 km relay, 1991: 30 km, 1995: 15 km), including all five golds at the 1997 championships in Trondheim (5 km, 5 km + 10 km combined pursuit, 15 km, 30 km, and 4 × 5 km relay). She also won three gold (all in relays) and four bronze medals in various Winter Olympic Games as well as the FIS Cross-Country World Cup five times (1989, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997).

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 (NRK) 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 [supporting the invasion of Ukraine]. 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. "I don't understand why everyone is so afraid of America and dependent on it. The world is ruled only by the United States, why hide it. Europe should think hard now: “Guys, what have we done?” Large corporations fled to America. They used to buy Russian gas for 33 kopecks, now they take expensive American gas for 76 kopecks. Whom did they offend or bent, what should they have done? Maybe something I actually can understand. There is a huge amount of weapons that have been lying in storage for 60-70 years. It's all rusty and rotten, where would you get rid of it? Great, let's put it all in there. Today it is Ukraine.

They depend on the USA, because everyone pays with this dollar. An American bank collapsed, and an insurance company from Sweden, the state, kept all the assets there. All.

European politicians today were 90% chosen from a cohort of people who have some kind of terrible kompromat [compromising materials] on them. There are no other explanations. How dare are you to sell out your people in general, to harm them so badly? The main thing is that the United States of America is satisfied! They whole European policy is like that right now.

Look how Georgia Meloni [of Italy] 'changed her shoes', who before the elections shouted that she was against these genders [LGBTQ+ community], that no weapons were going to be supplied [to Ukraine]. She was elected and everything changed. The woman turned by 180 degrees. Don't know.

Of course, I have nothing against the gynecologist Ursula von der Leyen [of the European Union]. Maybe she was an excellent doctor, but as the leader of the European coven, she does not cope very well."

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."

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. <ref name="auto"/ She later gave birth to Polina and Varvara, and since her divorce moved to and now lives in the Istra district in Moscow Oblast.

Cross-country skiing results
All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Olympic Games

 * 7 medals – (3 gold, 4 bronze)

World Championships

 * 17 medals – (14 gold, 3 silver)

Individual podiums

 * 45 victories
 * 81 podiums

Team podiums

 * 24 victories – (24 RL)
 * 32 podiums – (30 RL, 2 TS)

Note:  Until the 1999 World Championships and the 1994 Olympics, World Championship and Olympic races were included in the World Cup scoring system.

In popular culture

 * White Snow – a biographical sports drama film about Välbe.