The change comes after a disappointing 2015-16 season for the country, with just two victories throughout the entire International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup campaign and no medals at the World Championships in Oslo.

Russia's men performed similarly poorly, also drawing a blank at the World Championships, which prompted the country's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko to declare that he would be overseeing the appointment of the coaching staff personally.

In April he described the coaches as "absolutely hopeless" and claimed they lacked “sufficient qualifications”.

Medvedtsev had been working as a coach at the Krasnoyarsk Biathlon Academy and was an assistant for the men's team five years ago.

His wife, Olga Medvedtseva, won three Olympic medals, including two golds in the 10 kilometre pursuit at Salt Lake City 2002 and the 4 x 6km relay at Vancouver 2010.

She also won six World Championship gold medals.

Medvedtsev will begin work on June 1 while Konovalov will continue to work as an assistant, despite Mutko's comments.

Alexander Degtyarev, Vitaly Noritsyn and Paul Lantsov will also work as assistant coaches for the women, while the men's coaching set-up remains unchanged.

In a move which could again be seen as a surprise due to the stance of the Sports Minister, Ricco Gross will continue as men's head coach.

Alexander Kasperovich remains as the head coach over both the men's and women's teams.