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Tag: British Biathlon Union

  • Czech and British Biathlon to Boycott Tyumen World Cup, Other Teams Consider Joining

    Czech and British Biathlon to Boycott Tyumen World Cup, Other Teams Consider Joining

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    In response to evidence of widespread doping in Russia, the Czech Biathlon Union became the first to discuss a boycott. The Czechs will not attend a World Cup stage to be held in Tyumen, Russia, in March; they have been joined by the British Biathlon Union. Several other countries say they hope that the International Biathlon Union will move the event.

    But the Russian Biathlon Union put out a defiant press release denying any involvement in doping.

    A Boycott Grows

    At the past weekend’s World Cups in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, the federation announced their intent to skip Russian World Cup competitions. The move comes in response to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigation led by Richard McLaren. His team found that more than 30 Russian biathletes had been involved in doping. And across sports, cheating and collusion were systematic.

    “It was about time that some federation came and said out loud what we are talking about behind the scenes,” Czech Biathlon Union President Jiří Hamza said in an interview with the news agency iDNES, according to a translation.

    The International Biathlon Union (IBU) is being pushed to move the competitions. The dozens of doping biathletes are only part of the equation. Perhaps a bigger issue is that extensive sample manipulation and collusion occurred on Russian soil. That makes some athletes and federations reluctant to compete in Russia.

    “I don’t think anybody feels safe about being there, in a country that had this high level of collusion,” U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Tiger Shaw told FasterSkier the day the report came out.

    A few months ago, the IBU also controversially voted to award 2021 World Championships to Tyumen. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had directed that no new competitions should be scheduled in Russia; the IBU interpreted the directive to say that the existing Tyumen bid could remain up for election.

    2016 Youth and Junior World Championships, slated for Ostrov, Russia, are also part of the discussion.

    If the competitions are not moved, Czech athletes will not attend them, Hamza said.

    Also signing on to the boycott is the British Biathlon Union (BBU).

    “The Board of the BBU made a unanimous decision over the weekend to boycott World Cup 8 in Tyumen,” BBU Secretary General Mark Goodson wrote in an email to FasterSkier.

    Momentum may be building for other federations to sign on as well. A widespread boycott could push the IBU Executive Board to move the event. A similar boycott led to 2016 World Championships for bobsleigh and skeleton being stripped from Sochi, Russia.

    The IBU Executive Board is meeting to discuss the McLaren report this week.

    “Early this morning Tuesday, we received an Email of thanks from [Czech biathlon] and in mid-morning the Czech Republic issued an ‘Open Letter’ to the IBU and all Federations expressing even more displeasure than we had, and boycotting all events in Russia until WADA and the IOC gave their Anti-Doping Systems a clean bill of health,” Goodson wrote. “The latest news is mid-afternoon with a very supportive (of Czech) Open Letter from Norway demanding that named, proven Russian biathletes be banned with immediate effect, and that the IBU withdraw all competitions from Russia until a clean bill of health. Failure of IBU to do this will result in Norway considering a boycott of all international competitions in Russia.”

    North American federations are considering their options.

    “We have been discussing the issue and will make a decision Friday after the IBU makes its ruling,” Biathlon Canada High Performance Director Eric De Nys told FasterSkier. “We are of course hoping that the IBU makes the right call and pulls the World Cup from Tyumen.”

    The United States is leaving the decision up to individual athletes.

    “We have told our athletes that participation is up to them and that there will be no pressure for them one way or the other,” U.S. Biathlon Association President and CEO Max Cobb told FasterSkier in a text message.

    Some prominent athletes have been speaking individually about the prospect of a boycott.

    “It’s not like it’s only one or two [athletes],” Martin Fourcade said in an interview with Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “It’s 31, added to the 12 we had the last few years in biathlon. And I hope if my federation don’t have big enough balls to take [on] the problem, the athletes do it on their own… If nothing is done in January, I will ask my colleagues in the international teams – I mean Norway, I mean Germany, Czech Republic, all of the nations – to don’t compete.”

    Fourcade later said that his remarks were misinterpreted.

    Gabriela Koukalova, the star of the Czech team, told a Czech news outlet that she would also skip Tyumen.

    Russian Response

    The Russian Biathlon Union, however, denies any involvement in doping or cover-ups. The federation and demanded that the World Cup be kept in Tyumen.

    The following statement was posted on their website:

    “Due to the current atmosphere in the media landscape on the matter of 31 Russian biathletes, suspected of using prohibited substances, RBU considers it necessary to issue the following statement.

    In the course of several years, RBU has consistently pursued a policy of zero tolerance for doping. This is confirmed both by strict compliance of all Team Russia biathletes with the requirements of WADA and their due availability for control by WADA and other accredited organizations along with active collaboration of RBU with these organizations in the field of promotion of clean sport. Clear evidence of mentioned above – the official statistics of WADA concerning the number of doping tests taken in biathlon in 2014.

    Starting spring’14, after the election of the new top management of the Russian biathlon Union, this cooperation has become even more intense.

    Within the idea of zero tolerance for doping RBU held more than 10 seminars for athletes and coaches inviting representatives of national and international anti-doping organizations. All persons who had ever been involved or had been under suspicion of any connection with the use of prohibited substances were banned for life. In the course of internal tests at national competitions all the athletes who didn’t comply with strict requirements of RBU were caught and severely punished.

    Another proof of zero tolerance for doping is the fact of cooperation of RBU with the foreign experts, such as Ricco Gross and Wolfgang Pichler, who would never agree to jeopardize their reputation.

    We do not know the names of the athletes from the list that will be discussed by our respected colleagues from IBU on Thursday, December 22nd. However, we are ready to provide comprehensive information about any RBU athlete ever to participate in the biathlon Events. We admit that the majority of persons from this list are those who have already been accused of violation of doping rules by the RUSADA and RBU internal doping control and are currently disqualified or finished their career.”

    Pichler is a German who came to prominence coaching the Swedish biathlon team and Magdalena Forsberg in particular. An outspoken opponent of doping, Pichler was hired to coach the Russian women’s team from 2012-2014. He has now returned to the Swedish team.

    Within the Russian national team there were two training squads, with Pichler heading one of them. He said as early as the Sochi Olympics that he suspected there was doping within the other training group, headed by Vladimir Korolkevich. He had even tried to leave his post early due to concerns about doping.

    But Pichler has maintained that his own athletes were clean. The report sheds doubt on that assertion. At least two of Pichler’s athletes – Olga Zaitseva and Yana Romanova – were on the “protected list” in Sochi. One of Romanova’s urine samples also showed signs of being tampered with by anti-doping officials. And more of his athletes may be among the 31 who were referred to only by alpha-numeric code identifiers in the report.

    As for Gross, the German coach was only hired by Russia in August 2015.

    “I know relatively little about what happened there,” he said in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF in early December. “I have only been a coach there for one year. It is being discussed, that much is clear. It does put pressure on the athletes, that they are being pointed at. I believe it’s not only a Russian problem, it is a worldwide problem which has to be tackled… I am experiencing a lot of support, also by [the Russian Biathlon Union], because they also want clean and fair sport. So at that moment it is sad when you are being pointed at again. They are following my line, if someone cheats he’ll be kicked out.”

  • Despite Loss of Title Sponsor and Coach, British Biathlon Still Going Strong on World Cup

    Despite Loss of Title Sponsor and Coach, British Biathlon Still Going Strong on World Cup

    Lee-Steve Jackson of Great Britain, bib 57, on the range in the World Cup pursuit in Östersund, Sweden, earlier this season. He placed 58th in the race.

    At the end of the 2012 season, longtime title sponsor Skandia dropped their support of the British Biathlon Union. One of the many consequences was that national team coach Walter Pichler, a German with a successful athletic career of his own who had previously coached the U.S. team, left the squad.

    “That was a big dip for us,” biathlete Amanda Lightfoot told FasterSkier back at the first World Cups of the season in Östersund, Sweden. “But the Army has helped out magnificently.”

    As a result, the Brits were still on the circuit. After finishing in the points (top 40) at each of the last two World Championships, 25-year-old Lightfoot was unsatisfied with her results in Östersund, where she finished 93rd in the 15 k individual and 75th in the 7.5 k sprint; in the coming weekends she placed 78th in the sprint in Hochfilzen, Austria, and 95th in the sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia.

    Whether the lull in results is a result of the changes to her governing body is unclear. But one thing is certain: things have changed for Lightfoot and her teammates. They used to spend considerable time training in Ruhpolding, Germany, with Pichler. Now, Lightfoot has joined teammate Lee-Steve Jackson outside of Lillehammer, Norway, where she works with local coaches as well as Scott Banes, a former athlete. Mark Walker is now the head coach of the team.

    “I miss Walter of course, but what can I do,” Lightfoot said. “It’s been better than what I thought. I’m training on my own mostly. I had a week training camp with [the Norwegians], and then there’s opportunities to go once or twice a week and train along side them, if it fits into your program.”

    That’s a plan that Jackson has been on ever since the 2010 Olympics.

    “I moved to Lillehammer to get in and around the best athletes who do biathlon and see what they are actually doing, and do my best to close the gap,” he told FasterSkier in Östersund.

    Lightfoot en route to 36th place in the sprint at last season’s World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany.

    At 32 years of age and now with a total of seven World Championships appearances under his belt, Jackson has been in the sport of biathlon long enough that he needed a step up. In Lillehammer, he found it. Training in Scandinavia is completely different than anything he had experienced before, he said.

    “For them, for every level, it’s a lifestyle,” he said. “There are so many athletes at every level, and they’re still training really hard. They sacrifice a job and an education to train full time whether they’re in the national team or just a club team.”

    And in terms of high level biathlon, Lillehammer is the place to be. Not only does the bulk of the Norwegian national team train there, but also a collection of other athletes, such as Carl Johan Bergman of Sweden, who picked up two medals at last season’s World Championships.

    Like Lightfoot, Jackson mainly trains alone. But he said that he also sometimes joins Norwegian stars Emil Hegle Svendsen and Tarjei Bø, both of whom are World Champions and overall World Cup winners, for a run or a bike ride. What better way to learn what it takes to succeed?

    “When it comes to a race, if you want to go fast you have to adopt that lifestyle,” Jackson said. “That’s an important thing. In a lot of other countries, and in our country, it’s a sport. But for them it’s a lifestyle from the age of four or five.”

    (To see what Jackson thinks it takes to get better, check out the tattooed marksman’s summer training video from this off-season.)

    Jackson is on a quest to score his first World Cup points, and seemed to be on track in Sweden after finishing 57th in the sprint and 58th in the pursuit. After that, he slipped to the mid-90’s in the sprints in Hochfilzen and Pokljuka. But when FasterSkier talked to him after the Östersund pursuit, he was optimistic about the season and didn’t think that those top-60 performances were the best he had to offer.

    “I only had two test races before [the first World Cup],” Jackson said. “Because of our circumstances with the women, we missed the mixed relay which would have been a nice preparation. But the sprint and today were much better. I’m not mentally in a place to push beyond my limits yet. So physically, I’m good, but mentally I know that I can hurt myself much more.”

    While the men were able to put together a relay team in Hochfilzen, where they placed 22nd of 25 teams, the women weren’t so lucky. With less depth to the team, the budget can’t support sending unqualified athletes to the big show. So while Marcel Laponder has joined Jackson on the World Cup, with a top finish of 87th in the Hochfilzen sprint, Lightfoot is the only Brit representing in the women’s races.

    As arguably the highest-achieving member of the team, she may have had the most to lose with the changes to the union. But the stakes are just as high for the other World Cup racers. At that level, other teams have an incredible support system, which is lacking fot the Brits.

    “On the bottom level it isn’t that huge,” Jackson said of the loss of Skandia. “We get paid from the military so that’s enough for us to keep ourselves, and there’s enough money from the IBU to keep going to all the races. But on things like coaching and support staff we suffer a lot because we can’t pay them to come and do the job.”

    On the British Biathlon Union’s website, they list only two sponsors on their sponsor page and a gaping hole optimistically blares, “It could be you!”

    Although Lightfoot’s shooting has been imperfect so far this season – and she sorely needs it to improve, as her 36th-place performance in last season’s World Championships sprint came from a clean slate – improving her form on skis has actually been one of her biggest focuses this summer and fall.

    “Skiing-wise, it feels much better,” she said. “This summer that had been my main focus, and keeping the ski speed there. I’ve changed a few things with my technique this year, so I just need to pull together my shooting. It’s not quite there yet, but it will come.”

    Besides the Norwegians, experts of ski technique themselves, the British cross country skiers Andrew Musgrave and Andrew Young also train in Lillehammer.

    “We’ve almost gathered a small team there,” Jackson joked.

    Lightfoot in 11th place after the prone stage of the women’s relay at World Championships; she tagged off in 15th and the Brits went on to place 22nd.