The International Biathlon Union (IBU) made a congress decision in the fall of 2022 to ban Russia and Belarus as long as the war against Ukraine continues.
It's not even a question right now. Then we hope the war will end, because these are two very important biathlon nations, says IBU's Swedish chairman Olle Dahlin.
More and more voices are being raised to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate again. Including several candidates for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
And the IOC allowed neutral Russians and Belarusians to participate in the Summer Olympic Games in Paris last year.
Sports Decide
But it is the individual international sports federations that decide who will be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games, so in the Winter Olympic Games in Milan Cortina in a year, there will be no Russian and Belarusian biathletes in any case.
The International Ice Hockey Federation has also recently said no to the participation of the banned countries in the Olympic Games. The International Skating Union allows neutral athletes and only one per nation and discipline in speed skating, figure skating, and short track.
If the war ends and we make a different decision than the one that applies now, there is a possibility to qualify until January 26, 2026, according to IBU's rules, says Dahlin.
Parallel World Championship
According to the Russian Championship, a parallel World Championship is being held in Belarus at the same time as the World Championship in Lenzerheide, with Belarusians and Russians, with all the disciplines that exist in Lenzerheide.
Dahlin has not heard of them holding competitions they call World Championships, on the other hand, it is allowed for any nation to arrange competitions for two nations without notifying the IBU.
Over the past two years, there have been some flagging in Russia that they intended to arrange competitions with more invited. We have written to the Russian Federation and to the nations that Russian media reported would be invited and very clearly stated what applies. We wrote "Warning" as the title of the emails we sent. As far as I know, they have respected this, says he.
Biathlete Sebastian Samuelsson, who also leads IBU's athletes' council, thinks it's cheeky that the banned countries call their competition a World Championship.
But I think our World Championship is the one that counts the most, says Samuelsson.
