Decision of the WADA commission on Russian biathletes. Under attack - Anton Shipulin. The International Biathlon Union will decide the fate of the Russian team. Ready for sacrifices

On Thursday, December 15th, International Biathlon Union(IBU) received from World Anti-Doping Agency(WADA) list of 31 Russian biathletes suspected of violating anti-doping rules.

Among them are athletes who have already completed their careers, those who have served a suspension for doping, and those who have never been part of the national team.

This list of organizations was provided by the head of the independent commission WADA Richard McLaren after the publication on December 9 of the second part of the report on doping in Russian sports.

McLaren accused Russia of creating a large-scale system of supporting doping and fraud during major tournaments, including the home Olympics in Sochi, as well as before and after the 2014 Games.

After this, a number of teams, in particular the Czech Republic and Great Britain, as well as the leader of the overall World Cup standings, the Frenchman Martin Fourcade expressed their intention to boycott the 2016/17 World Cup in Tyumen if the punishment for athletes who violated anti-doping rules is not severe enough.

The feasibility of holding the 2021 World Championships in Tyumen was also questioned.

Two suspended biathletes

The IBU Executive Committee heard the report of an expert group created a week ago to study the materials provided by WADA after the publication of the second part of the McLaren report.

The main result is that the Russian biathlon team is not suspended from international competitions. For now.

Following an emergency meeting of the organization’s executive committee, a decision was made temporarily suspend two athletes from Russia.

A disciplinary investigation has been launched against these biathletes, whose names have not been released, during which time they will not be able to compete.

Of the 31 Russian biathletes mentioned in Richard McLaren's report, one competed only at the national level, and the other is already serving a sentence.

Investigations will be opened against the Russian Biathlon Union and the remaining 27 biathletes discussed in the second part of McLaren’s report and who are not associated with the Sochi Olympics.

The temporary suspension of athletes mentioned in the second part of the McLaren report and not related to the Winter Olympic Games has not yet come into force.

The IBU also ruled:

Warn each Russian athlete mentioned in the report;
- set a time limit for submitting comments;
- create a working group for further IBU anti-doping investigation.
- the decision on whether to bring charges or not shall be submitted to a hearing by the anti-doping commission.
- the anti-doping commission - make decisions that can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Russia lost the World Cup stage

Another unpleasant result of the meeting of the IBU executive committee was that the Russian Biathlon Union refused to hold the World Cup stage in Tyumen of the Youth and Youth World Championships, which was supposed to be held in Ostrov (Pskov region).

Now the IBU must decide where these competitions will take place. There is no clarity yet regarding the holding of the 2021 World Championships in Tyumen.

IBU President Anders Besseberg welcomed the decision of the RBU to voluntarily refuse to host the 2017 Youth and Youth World Championships in Ostrov and the World Cup stage in Tyumen, and also explained what caused such a softness of sanctions against the Russians.

The International Biathlon Union (IBU) has closed cases against 22 of the 29 Russian athletes it investigated following the publication of a report by the independent WADA commission led by Richard McLaren. However, the IBU can still apply sanctions against Russian biathlon - key decisions will be made at the executive committee meeting on February 9.

On Saturday, January 21, an emergency meeting of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) was held in Anterselva, Italy, dedicated to the results of the organization’s investigation into the report of the independent WADA commission led by Richard McLaren.

As a result of the meeting, due to lack of evidence, cases against 22 of 29 Russian biathletes suspected of doping were dropped and closed by the International Biathlon Union (IBU). President of the Russian Biathlon Union (SBR) Alexander Kravtsov told the R-Sport agency about this.

Now the IBU continues to investigate only seven Russian athletes, and by February 5, the Russian Biathlon Union must give explanations on them and provide a full list of documents.

At the meeting it also became known that the IBU will include all Russian athletes taking part in competitions under the auspices of the organization in the registered pool of doping tests.

“The IBU Executive Committee has decided to automatically include all Russian biathletes participating in competitions under the auspices of the organization in the registered pool of doping tests,” the organization said in a statement.

Besseberg said that the IBU will not announce the names of the suspected biathletes, and said when decisions will be made regarding the World Championships in Tyumen.

“The McLaren report contains only part of the information we are working with, so we are still not releasing names. The details are known to the working group, but I don't have all seven suspect names in mind.

I will not mention any names until the investigation is complete. If the president of the Russian Biathlon Union decides to do this, he has every right. And we don’t want to make this formal mistake,” Besseberg noted.

Despite the generally positive outcome of the meeting for Russian sports, it is too early for our fans to rejoice.

The next executive committee of the International Biathlon Union will take place on February 9, and key decisions regarding Russian biathletes will be made, including regarding the 2021 World Championships, which are to be held in Tyumen.

It was also decided to recheck all samples from the Sochi Olympics of all active athletes, since we have not yet received sufficient evidence of guilt, according to McLaren’s report.

In the last 10-15 years, we have had many positive tests, but the anti-doping panel must be confident in the evidence base so that it cannot later be challenged by WADA or the accused party.

All of our athletes' appeals were rejected, except for the case of a procedural error with Kaisa Waris. Therefore, before making a decision, we must be convinced of their guilt. The two temporary suspensions, which were decided in December, remain in force after today’s meeting,” the IBU President emphasized.

Other news, materials and statistics can be viewed on the winter sports page, as well as in the sports department groups on the social networks Facebook and Vkontakte.

On Thursday, a meeting of the executive committee of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) will be held in Salzburg, Austria, where a decision will be made to punish 31 Russian athletes mentioned in McLaren's report. In addition, the IBU may consider depriving Tyumen of the 2017 World Cup and 2021 World Championships. The national teams of the Czech Republic, Great Britain and a number of other teams had already promised to boycott competitions in Russia the day before if the punishment turned out to be too lenient.

The sports world, driven almost to hysteria by doping investigations, demands urgent decisions from the IBU. So urgent that on the eve of Catholic Christmas, a dozen members of the executive committee are forced to get up from the festive table and come to Salzburg to put Russia on trial. Considering the enormous significance of Christmas and the accompanying preparations for Europeans, this can be compared to the situation if we had some fateful meeting of the federation held on December 31 at approximately 20.00.

So, what do IBU officials have to decide? First of all, they will hear a report from a group of experts (the composition of this group has not been disclosed) who over the past week have been studying documents from the McLaren report on doping in Russian sports. These documents were divided into 31 folders, according to the number of names of the athletes involved. The IBU received all these names and documents from the World Anti-Doping Agency immediately after the publication of the report on December 9.

NINE MAKEERS OF FATE

Having assessed the information presented by the experts, the IBU Executive Committee will have to make the main decision: whether the Russian team will be able to participate in the post-New Year stages of the World Cup, and the Russian Biathlon Union, accordingly, will remain a member of the international federation. If the answer to at least one of these questions is negative, the holding of competitions on the territory of our country is also under threat - the World Cup stage in the 2017 season and the 2021 World Championships, planned in Tyumen. Not to mention, of course, the prospect for all Russian biathletes, like track and field athletes, to be left without the next Olympic Games. Unfortunately, we have learned very well recently how indefinite suspensions from international federations end.

The IOC Executive Committee consists of ten people:

• Anders Besseberg(Norway) - IBU President
• Victor Maigurov(Russia) - First Vice President
• Klaus Leistner (Austria) - Vice President for Finance
• Max Cobb (USA) - Vice President of Sports Affairs
• Ivor Lehotan (Slovakia) - Vice President for Information Policy
• Olle Dahlin (Sweden) - Vice President of Development
• Thomas Füller (Germany) - Vice President of Marketing
• James Carrabre (Canada) - Vice President of Medical Affairs
• Nami Kim (Korea) - Vice President for Special Affairs
• Nicole Roesch(Germany) - General Secretary

The IBU Executive Committee consists of exactly ten people. In addition to the president of the organization, Norwegian Anders Besseberg and first vice-president, Russian Viktor Maigurov, these are Klaus Leistner (Austria), Max Cobb (USA), Ivor Lehotan (Slovakia), Olle Dahlin (Sweden), Thomas Pfüller (Germany), James Carrabre (Canada) ), Nami Kim (Korea) and Secretary General Nicole Resch (Germany). According to SE, Maigurov as an interested party will not take part in the voting.

The Norwegian Besseberg cannot be accused of a biased attitude towards our country. Suffice it to remember that even despite the flaring scandal, he gave Russia the right to host the 2021 World Cup. But Nicole Resch, who is the president's right hand, probably looks at things a little differently. In any case, Resch took part in the disciplinary hearings in the Akhatova-Yuryeva-Yaroshenko case back in 2009, and then clearly took on the role of prosecutor. This time, the positions of Besseberg and Resch will depend entirely on the severity of the charges that the group of experts will bring against the Russians.

NAMES WILL NOT BE NAMED

In general, despite the fate of the pre-Christmas executive committee, there is reason to think that it will not give a final answer to all questions. For example, it is unlikely that we will find out all the names on the “McLaren list” on Thursday. “The names of the athletes in the 31 files will remain confidential until final decisions are made on each individual case,” the IBU said in a press release.

In other words, until the decision on disqualification is made, the organization will not announce the names of the involved biathletes. On Thursday they will definitely not disqualify anyone: in ten days, sorting through all the documents and making a decision is an unrealistic task. At most, the IBU will suspend current biathletes from competitions, if there are any on the list. Even if their names are not announced, it will not be difficult to figure them out based on the composition of the team. We will also probably find out how many of the 31 Russians have already been disqualified earlier. This is also a lot.

In general, it is likely that the IBU Executive Committee will set a certain vector of further actions, without going into specifics. Until the results of a complete recheck of the Sochi samples through the International Olympic Committee, and until the conclusions of the two IOC commissions for Russia, the IBU does not have complete information both for the disqualification of individual athletes and for the removal of the national federation.

READY FOR SACRIFICES

But the public is demanding some action from the IBU. First of all, they will concern the next stage of the World Cup and the 2021 World Championship. It seems very likely that Russia will lose the right to host these competitions, as happened earlier with the Bobsleigh World Championships. Why should the international federation risk boycotts and public condemnation if there is an opportunity to almost painlessly move the races to a calmer place.

Moreover, there is a feeling that Russia is already ready for this sacrifice. Still, three dozen athletes involved in doping cases for a sport in which only a few hundred people are involved at the highest level is a huge number, even if it turns out that some of the accused were never even among the candidates for our national team. At present times, one disqualification of an active elite biathlete from Russia may be enough for the IBU to listen to the recommendations of the IOC and cancel all international competitions in our country. However, as practice shows, errors in the information from the McLaren report are not uncommon.

We can only believe in a miracle. Especially on Christmas Eve.

THE ORGANIZERS OF THE WORLD CUP STAGE IN TYUMEN HAVE "ANXIETY IN THEIR SOUL"

One of the possible consequences of the announcement of the “List of 31” could be the deprivation of the Russian national team of the right to host the World Cup in March 2017 and the 2021 World Cup. Officials of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) in response to inquiries ask not to rush things, while the Czech Republic, Norway, the USA and Canada have already spoken in favor of moving the world championships from Russia. Even the governor of the Tyumen region and member of the board of the RBU Vladimir Yakushev admitted that the danger of canceling the starts exists.

Meanwhile, in the city itself, preparations for the World Cup are going according to plan. This was confirmed by "SE" both in the regional sports department and in the winter sports center "Pearl of Siberia", where the competitions are to take place.

“I’m worried,” said Anatoly Tobolov, executive director of the Tyumen Regional Cross-Country and Biathlon Federation, sharing his expectations. - A huge amount of work has been done to prepare for the World Cup stage, and it has also begun as part of the organization of the World Cup. We have already sold about 20 thousand tickets for the March competition, people from more than 60 regions of our country, near and far abroad will come to us. A lot has already been done; we have incurred quite serious financial costs. That is why our governor sent a letter to the International Biathlon Union explaining the possible negative consequences of the postponement. Let's hope that they will listen to our arguments.

What does your intuition tell you personally? What are our chances?
- I think it’s 50/50. I want common sense to prevail. In addition, I don’t know whether any specific decision will be made on the competition on Thursday. It is possible that the IBU will not make a verdict on the competition right away.

However, is the World Cup stage planned for next year and are the corresponding costs included in the draft budget?
- Yes, definitely. All necessary work is going according to plan.

Athletes under house arrest, money down the drain? What will the IBU Executive Committee decide? , sovsport.ru

Much will depend on what the working group specifically reports; perhaps the members of the Executive Committee simply will not have a choice. In any case, these are the people who will make the decision. One vote, of course, will be on the Russian side, if, of course, Viktor Maigurov, as an interested party, is given the right to vote. It's more difficult with others. Much will depend on the position of the 70-year-old federation president Anders Besseberg.

Members of the IBU Executive Committee have additional responsibility also because other international winter sports federations will be guided by their decisions. According to our information, the likelihood of a complete disqualification of the Russian team is negligible. There is also little chance that the withdrawal from sports will be partial. It is known from informed sources that anti-doping services cannot have any complaints about the current team.

But the likelihood that this season’s tournaments will be taken away from Russia is high. Firstly, this is the World Cup stage, which this year was supposed to take place in Tyumen. Secondly, this is the youth world championship in Ostrov, Pskov region. Holding the “Race of Champions” in Tyumen, of course, is also in question.

If this happens, the Russian side will suffer not only serious image losses, but also financial losses. They are valued at tens of millions of rubles. For example, target installations for biathlon worth 12 million rubles have already been purchased for the tournament in Ostrov.

The budget for the World Cup stage in Tyumen is 282 million. It is clear that most of the costs should have happened closer to the tournament, but even now this is a big blow to the budget of the Tyumen region and the federal Ministry of Sports.

Finally, some interesting information about the doping control of biathletes in 2014. The total number of samples taken at competitions under the auspices of the IBU or at the national level is 2255 for athletes from 38 countries. Almost half of them - 878 - were taken from biathletes from Russia. No, there was no special attitude towards our athletes then - 813 of these samples were taken at domestic Russian competitions. This suggests that we ourselves established the strictest control (not only at tournaments, but also outside them) and were ourselves interested in keeping our athletes clean. Otherwise, would it be worth spending so much money (and sample analysis is not cheap) to then manipulate the samples?

Vlad, in this case the quota will be 1 person upon return. Doesn't this bother you?
1-2 seasons is not enough. 20 years.

“Otherwise, would it be worth spending so much money (and sample analysis is not cheap) to then manipulate the samples?”
It was precisely in order to manipulate so many samples that they took them, so that they could then replace dirty samples with clean ones.

But Vilukhina set sail from the sinking ship on time... and now she is in no danger since the IBU promised to look into only active biathletes.
The authorities probably had intelligence on who was on McLaren’s list and where everything was going, or maybe they just knew what they were doing.

Vlad, please, please name the names of the “old nags” who “eat anything” without knowing how to run honestly.
Loginov,..., please continue the list.

Olga,
Did you really think before that our valiant ranks are always ready to sacrifice their ass for the sake of biathlon - not biathlon, cosmodrome - not cosmodrome, stadium - not stadium? However!

but it seems to me that the national team will not be touched. If they had the facts, they would have named them long ago and would have suspended them. And so they drag out time, deciding how to pinch us more painfully on the quiet. But the stage in Tyumen will be deprived, this is a fact, and other competitions in Russia too...

Vlad, what about it, after all, although the Norwegians are sick, they are pure patients, they do not take doping, but medicine. It’s not for nothing that these McLarens kept everything secret; I’m afraid that they caused the scratches themselves, because now the samples were opened without the participation of the athletes. Yes, now everything can be faked, it’s not in vain that the canard about the prohibitive concentration of salt in tests is thrown into the open, they say that no matter what we present to the world community, everything is pure truth, and everything that Russian functionaries say is not true.

Elena, it's simple
“My philosophy is never to cheat, yours is to never get caught. That’s why we will never be able to understand each other.”

“The sports world, driven almost to hysteria by doping investigations, *** urgent decisions from the IBU.” The shaking primarily affected journalists and frenzied politicians with a serving of fried food, but this is not the entire sports world. Everything is used, even the names of famous athletes, their interviews with distortions of meaning. Here comes the same Martin Fourcade: “I didn’t say that,” which was written by the Norwegian media. The Czech Republic is interested, if not the most shouting “stop the thief”, then one of the main contenders for the World Cup instead of Tyumen. It didn’t work out by washing -Nove-Mesto outright lost to Tyumen by voting, so they decided to win the 2021 World Championship by skating. We are not proud - choke. Only rabid politicians need to understand and remember that any war, as a rule, ends in peace and how do they think about building relationships in the future? There is a proverb for this case: “Don’t spit in the well, because it’s possible that someday you’ll have to drink from it.” The only thing I want is to punish fans of internal investigations, those biathlon figures who are directly or indirectly involved in doping scams, in particular those figures who purposefully excommunicated Irina Starykh from the national team. Punish, regardless of any titles. Journalists have one cry - stop!

Vlad, don’t the Norwegians have their own website? Maybe you shouldn't trust reprints?

yes, he croaked into the mud... And sit there in Tashkent with your opinion. It doesn't interest tourists. And don’t disgrace “MY” country... What about biathlon, our right to a country is already being taken away.

I don’t remember a single Anglo-Saxon on the pedestal. Great and mighty is English biathlon... The squad will not notice the loss of a fighter...

The British biathlon team is a force!

Now not only the Norwegians, but also the Czechs and the British came out in favor of a boycott. However, everything can be resolved on its own after a meeting of the working group. Not long to wait

You know, the scandal has long since become a PR show. I don’t understand that our officials are so clueless that they cannot play on this field? Own investigation, several officials to the slaughter, maybe with detention (for a couple of months), loud statements - these are all sports officials, and the athletes have nothing to do with it. In fact, their reluctance to play in a public field will come at a cost. To settle everything under the carpet - they are no longer ready, this flywheel has spun too much. The fact that the sacrificial sheep from the insignificant bureaucrats from the sport was not chosen only means that they are ready to sacrifice all the athletes and biathlon in general in Russia, for the sake of their asses. Everything is worse than I thought.

The table shows that more of ours were tested, but more simply because here a lot of ours were tested at internal Russian competitions. In France there are no such large-scale internal competitions, there are no checks - there is no one to check.

And we test our own people because doping is widespread among us. Regional teams and coaches widely use doping. They need to justify the money allocated by the regions for the development of biathlon, and take high places in domestic Russian competitions. The IBU should encourage us to give credit to the identified dopers for such checks, not as guilt.

Germany - 2, USA, Canada, Sweden: already 100% FIVE for the Russian disqualification.
Maygurov can support them.))

The national team needs a shake-up, let them run for 1-2 seasons in the “common heap” in the Kyrgyz Republic.
All these “Barnashovs” with their “Yans” have already gotten it..., everyone is dragging their “Shumilova”, forgetting about the young ones. “Old nags” cannot run honestly, so they eat whatever they can, and the ENTIRE Rusbiathlon is to blame.

So asthmatics, practically disabled athletes, woke up:

Norwegian biathletes demanded from the International Biathlon Union (IBU) that competitions not be held until all procedures are “clean”: Russian athletes who used doping should be suspended from the games. Norway intends to join the boycott of the teams of Great Britain and the Czech Republic, refusing to participate in the Biathlon World Cup in Tyumen. This was reported on the website of the British Biathlon Union (BBU).

Details: regnum.ru

Lily, this is understandable. The difference between us and other countries at IBY tournaments is not clear. And there seems to be no difference. They all have approximately the same order of numbers. But internal control is a separate and complex issue - the number of samples can be large, but how they are actually processed and what the consequences are for athletes and their curators (doctors, trainers) - this can be quite arbitrary.

execution cannot be pardoned...

Elen, I agree! The tension has already reached its climax! Doesn't matter
nothing can be done anymore. Just wait...

I think it's time to change the subject and calmly wait a day. I no longer have the strength to talk (write) on this topic and I don’t have the strength to read either.

Denis Moscow, if you also talked to politicians from half the world, then you would definitely know which of them just don’t like Russia, and which of them are out of fear of being punished by the Americans.

Denis Moscow, he's been all over the place! There is no place for trolls on our website! You don’t have to try, they won’t understand you, this is not sports. Did you register as a specialist today in order to stir up people? You'll quickly go to the bathhouse forever!

Elena, you better sit there in Tashkent and don’t write about what you don’t know. I have traveled half the world and have NEVER seen a bad attitude towards Russia, which, as you write, “a fool understands.” In Poland and the Czech Republic, for example, they willingly switch to Russian if they determine that you are from Russia, naturally, if you have studied it, and Americans and Australians generally love us. So don't disgrace my country with your xenophobic posts

Elen, it is clear that ours passed the most, and the rest is not important.

I reported back in 2014 that samples are taken unevenly in different countries. wrote. The Russian Federation has the most international tests, followed by China; everyone else sees doping officers once a year. And if they take it so often, it means more illegal substances are found. Russia and China are not liked in the world, a fool understands this. It’s just more expensive for you to get involved with China, so they’ll definitely throw hats at you

I didn’t understand anything from the sign: how much was where and what.

“The findings of the McLaren report revealed serious problems in Russian sports and its anti-doping system. The IBU takes the available information very seriously to determine the scale of the problems in Russian biathlon,” Besseberg said in a statement issued after the meeting.

Russian biathlon fans can breathe a sigh of relief for a while: no serious sanctions have yet followed. “The existing suspicions are not enough to apply sanctions. We will continue to follow the path of professional proceedings, taking into account all opinions, and not acting solely on suspicion. The rules must work in the interests of both the guilty and the innocent,” Besseberg said.

However, it should not be ruled out that the final decision may be toughened.

Reaction in Russia

The Russian Biathlon Union, which refused to host two major tournaments, said it expects a speedy and thorough investigation by the IBU regarding the information contained in McLaren's report. “In this situation, the RBU will act in accordance with international anti-doping legislation. At the same time, those involved in cases should be punished only if their guilt is truly proven. We hope that in the very near future big biathlon will return to Russia,” the organization’s release says.

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sports, Tourism and Youth Affairs Mikhail Degtyarev said that “the decision of the International Biathlon Union, which does not contain sweeping and large-scale accusations against our biathlon,” can be called balanced, despite “colossal pressure from third countries.” In his opinion, “the overheated heads of representatives of third countries will cool down and the vicious practice of postponing sports tournaments under their pressure will be stopped.” “A working group has been created to further the IBU anti-doping investigation. This investigation, I am sure, will be impartial,” Degtyarev added.

The organizers of the cup stage take the IBU decision as a given. The press secretary of the governor of the Tyumen region, Olga Frolova, told RBC that the region will begin to calculate the losses that “will be suffered not only by the Tyumen authorities, but also by those who were going to attend this competition.” “We built additional stands at the Pearl of Siberia stadium specifically to host the Biathlon World Cup. All tickets for the cup have already been sold out, hotels have been booked. 60% of the competition guests are from outside,” she said.

Member of the RBU board, four-time Olympic champion Alexander Tikhonov called the refusal of the cup stage a big loss for Russia. “What I was most afraid of was the disqualification of athletes and the RBU. The fact that the World Cup stage will be postponed is, of course, a big loss for us. Athletes and coaches do not need to bow their heads, they need to prepare, perform and prove, restore their good name,” he said in an interview with R-Sport. In a conversation with RBC, Tikhonov noted that the head of the RBU and the Ministry of Sports should now understand the situation.

Echo of the McLaren report

On the creation of a special commission after the IBU received from WADA a list with the names of 31 Russian biathletes suspected of doping. Not a single name from the list has yet been named.

The list was compiled by an independent McLaren commission that investigated cases of doping by Russian athletes between 2011 and 2015.

IBU President Anders Besseberg said then that all biathletes on the list can be divided into three groups: these are active athletes; those who have already completed their careers; and those who are not listed in the IBU database. In the latter case, we are talking about athletes who compete only in domestic Russian competitions.

Russian athletes during the 12.5 km pursuit race at the ninth stage of the Biathlon World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. 2016 (Photo: Sergey Fadeichev/TASS)

Experts agreed that the commission’s findings could turn into a disaster for Russian biathlon. Possible scenarios included:

• cancellation of all major competitions in Russia: at least the World Cup stage in the spring of 2017 in Tyumen, in the future there was talk of the World Championship, which should be held there in 2021. The Junior World Championships in the Pskov region in February 2017 were also under threat of cancellation;
• disqualification of athletes from the list and cancellation of their results at past competitions;
• removal of the entire biathlon team from all official international competitions on the principle of collective responsibility (a similar thing has already happened with Russian athletics).

It was reported that a decision on the doping cases of 31 Russian athletes could be made before the start of the World Championship in Hochfilzen, Austria, which will be held from February 8 to 19, 2017. According to some reports, this could happen before the new year.

Boycott threats

Of the most influential countries in biathlon, Norway took the most principled position. The biathlon federation of this country appealed to the IBU with a demand to cancel all competitions planned in Russia.

“We demand that the IBU cancel all international competitions in Russia until the fight against doping in this country meets WADA requirements. The level of doping by Russian athletes has reached unprecedented levels; in this situation, the Norwegian Biathlon Federation cannot stand aside,” the letter said.

Norwegian athlete Johannes Boe during the race (Photo: Reuters/Pixstream)

The position of the Norwegians was supported by representatives of the Czech Republic. “I don’t think that the [World Cup in Tyumen] stage will take place at all for the simple reason that none of the biathletes will come there. If there are no other athletes there, then there will be no Czechs there either. We will be united in this,” said the head of the Czech Federation, Jiri Gamza, in an interview with the Dnes newspaper.

Another country that supported the decision to boycott was Great Britain, which is not the strongest in this sport. “The British side will be very surprised if the IBU decides not to move the World Cup stage from Russia, as well as the Junior World Championships, which are to be held in 2017 in the Pskov region,” the local federation said in a statement.

The idea of ​​boycotting the competition if the IBU’s reaction is not tough enough was expressed by the leader of the world biathlon, Frenchman Martin Fourcade. In an interview with NRK, he said that he hopes that the international union will have the courage to punish Russian athletes. “If there are no consequences for them, then I will urge partners and rivals not to participate in the competition,” Fourcade said. However, later on his VKontakte page he clarified this statement, noting that in order to talk about the guilt of a particular athlete, evidence is needed.

Nevertheless, the leaders of the Norwegian team and one of the strongest biathletes in the world, Czech Gabriela Koukalova, also announced their readiness to boycott competitions in Russia.

Russia's position

The situation around Russian biathlon was commented on in the Kremlin. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the demands to cancel the World Cup in Tyumen, said that the current situation is based on accusations that there was connivance in the doping system in Russia. Peskov said that our country strongly rejects these accusations, and added that President Putin had previously stated the need to interact with international organizations “to clarify the situation and build an effective new system to prevent the use of doping.”

Head of the Russian Biathlon Union Alexander Kravtsov at the 2015 Biathlon World Championships (Photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS)

The leadership of the Russian Biathlon Union took a wait-and-see approach. The head of the RRF, Alexander Kravtsov, stated that it is impossible to say “that nothing threatens us.”

“Today, on a formal basis, what can the IBU present using the McLaren report? Or what did the authors of this report present to the IBU itself? The fact that some kind of manipulation was carried out with the samples. In any case, the athletes themselves did not participate in this, they did not stand and pour from one test tube to another, and the SBR did not participate in such manipulation, if it took place.”

Alexander Kravtsov in an interview with R-Sport

Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov did not comment on the situation at all. His predecessor, now Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, also stated that he had nothing to say about what conclusions the IBU commission could draw.

National team season: current results

In mid-December, the last World Cup stage of the calendar year was held in the Czech town of Nove Mesto. The Russian team, which traditionally does not conduct December competitions very well, performed very well: in six races, five medals were won at once: one gold, two silver and two bronze.

In total, since the beginning of the season, the Russians are firmly in third place in the number of podiums with ten medals (two gold, four silver and four bronze). The best results during the 2016/17 season are shown only by representatives of France and Germany. The successes of the Russians seem all the more unexpected after the extremely unsuccessful previous season, during which our team failed the World Championship, without winning a single medal for the first time in history.

Anton Shipulin, winner of the men's biathlon mass start at the 2016 Race of Champions. April 9, 2016 (Photo: Evgeny Tumashov/TASS)

Of the Russian biathletes, Anton Shipulin traditionally shows the best result: he takes second place in the individual competition, second only to the undisputed favorite of the season, Martin Fourcade. The top 10 includes another Russian - Maxim Tsvetkov (in 6th place). Among women, the best Russian, Tatyana Akimova, takes 9th place in the overall standings.

A total of nine stages are planned for the World Cup, with six more remaining. The nearest of them will be held in Oberhof, Germany, from January 5 to 8. The Russian stage is traditionally held in the spring. Previously it was hosted by Khanty-Mansiysk, this season it should be held in Tyumen from March 9 to 12.

MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. The International Biathlon Union (IBU), with its decision to suspend the investigation into 22 Russian athletes, made it clear that the data on which the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) led by Richard McLaren based its accusations against Russia are untenable.

The IBU Executive Committee held an extraordinary meeting on Saturday evening in Anterselva, Italy, at which it heard a report from the organization’s working group that studied the data provided by the McLaren Commission. After the release on December 9 of the final version of the Canadian professor’s report, which contained a number of indictments against Russian sports, the IBU Executive Committee met for the second time to discuss the issue of biathletes’ involvement in anti-doping violations.

IBU is out of politics

The first meeting took place on December 22 in Munich; a month ago, it was decided to abandon the World Cup stage in Tyumen and the Junior World Championship in Ostrov (Pskov region), which were planned for February-March. In addition, 31 Russian biathletes came under suspicion, two of whom were already retired Sochi Olympic medalists Yana Romanova and Olga Vilukhina. Their affairs are carried out through the International Olympic Committee (IOC). As for the remaining 29 athletes, almost all of them were acquitted on Saturday: the IBU will continue to investigate seven biathletes, the organization no longer has any reason to suspect 22 Russians.

“This is a balanced decision,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko commented on the results of the executive committee. “If you get away from politics and chatter, and are guided only by the rules of law, then everything will fall into place. Our athletes win with the help of their efforts and hard work.”

With its decision, the IBU actually called into question the results of the McLaren Commission investigation. After all, the conclusions made by the Canadian professor and his colleagues were based on data that ultimately ended up at the disposal of the IBU. The International Federation, in turn, considered them unconvincing, otherwise it would not have acquitted almost three quarters of the suspected athletes on Saturday.

In fact, the lawyer of Russian skiers Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov, Christoph Wischemann, also spoke about the inconsistency of the data of the McLaren commission. Having conducted his own analysis of the data on the basis of which athletes were suspended from competition, he discovered a lot of inaccurate and contradictory information, which he reported to the International Ski Federation (FIS).

The FIS has yet to make a ruling on the six suspended Russian skiers, but the precedent set by the IBU allows us to hope for a favorable outcome for the athletes.

However, the investigation into the Russian Biathlon Union and its athletes has not yet been completed. The next meeting on this topic will be held by the IBU Executive Committee on February 9 - the first day of the World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria. The names of the remaining seven athletes, according to the WADA code, are not disclosed, but it cannot be ruled out that among them there are those who are preparing to compete at the World Championships. For this reason, the IBU should put an end to this matter before the main start of the season.

The voice of biathletes is heard

One of the reasons for convening an emergency meeting could have been the reaction to McLaren’s report by the athletes themselves, who, at the initiative of the world biathlon leader, Frenchman Martin Fourcade, put forward a number of demands to the IBU. All of them were outlined in a letter signed by about 170 athletes.

The IBU Executive Committee considered the athletes' request and took into account their opinions. "The proposals from the athletes' letter received on January 13th are appreciated and taken seriously. They will be sent to the legal committee for the preparation of proposals to the executive committee in order to make changes to the rules, which will be considered at the next congress," the organization said in a statement published after the end executive committee

The next congress, which is the IBU's highest governing body, could take place as early as this year. A similar proposal was also made on Saturday. It was initially assumed that the next congress would be held in the fall of 2017.

In addition, the IBU called on the IOC to recheck the doping tests of all active biathletes who competed at the 2014 Olympic Games.