Recently retired 20km race walking champion Olga Kaniskina has already started her career as coach.
She has joined her former trainer Viktor Chegin’s race walking staff based in Sochi.
He told R-Sport news: “She advises the younger walkers for our team, they have a lot of respect for her.”
Kaniskina has a lot of experience to share having dominated her discipline over the past few years.
Her reign began at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka, where she took gold. She then went on to claim the Olympic title and successfully defended her world title twice, in 2009 and 2011.
Kaniskina’s medal collection was complete when she won the 2010 European Athletics Championships gold in Barcelona.
At 27, she decided that the 2012 London Olympic Games would be her last competition.
She led the walk from the start, but was overtaken in the final kilometre by fellow compatriot Elena Lashmanova and had to settle for silver.
One of Kaniskina’s goals for the season will be to guide reigning race walk world silver medallist Anisiya Kirdyapkina to a gold medal at the 2014 European Athletics Championships in Zurich.
Kirdyapkina told the Russian media: “Working with great champions is helping me improve; hopefully I can take another step and win a gold medal.”
Viktor Chegin confirmed that Beijing Olympic champion Valeriy Borchin is also present at the training camp in Sochi.
There had been rumours that Borchin would retire this year.
“I haven’t decided to retire, and want to continue competing until the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016,” he said.
The European Athletics Championships will be their primary focus for 2014.
“Our top walkers will be preparing to compete in Zurich,” Chegin revealed.