Nordic Nation: Biathlon Canada President Murray Wylie on Boycotting Russia

On Wednesday, Nordic Nation reached Biathlon Canada President Murray Wylie to discuss an open letter he signed on behalf of his organization and sent to the leaders of the International Biathlon Union.

We encourage you to read this more in-depth article on the open letter for some detailed context before listening to this podcast episode.

Here’s some of the key info from that piece:

On Dec. 10, the Executive Board of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced that the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) had been relegated to “provisional membership” for the 2017/2018 competition season.

The IBU’s decision comes on the heels of the International Olympic Committee’s recent actions on Russia’s participation at the 2018 Winter Games.

Despite the RBU’s less-than-full IBU member status, Russia is still scheduled to host the final IBU World Cup races of the season from March 20-25 in Tyumen and IBU Cup 7 & 8 in Uvat and Khanty-Mansiysk.

In an open letter sent to IBU President Anders Besseberg and IBU Secretary General Nicole Resch dated Dec. 8, 2017, Wylie stated Biathlon Canada will not be sending athletes to the IBU-sanctioned events in Russia in March.

In the letter, Wylie included the following reasons for this declaration:

•  “The occurrence of high-level IBU events in Russia is inconsistent with the IOC decision of 05 December to disallow participation by the Russia Team in the PyeongChang Olympics:”
• “the integrity of anti-doping procedures in Russia is still very much uncertain, given the current situation in which RUSADA remains non-compliant with WADA.”

Listen for more from Wylie, as told to FasterSkier on Dec. 13: