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The International Biathlon Union (IBU) had a busy week at its headquarters in Salzburg, Austria, as evidenced by a number of announcements made through press releases.
First came the news of the IBU Congress’s executive board nominations. Notably, one man and one woman made the final cut for position of IBU president: Olle Dahlin, a current executive board member and chairman of the Swedish Biathlon Federation, and Baiba Broka, president of the Latvian Biathlon Federation.
Anders Besseberg previously served as president of the IBU since its inception in 1993, but stepped down this past April as a result of a police investigation related to accepting Russian bribes in exchange for concealing Russian biathlon doping cases. Secretary General Nicole Resch was suspended as a result of the scandal as well, but both have denied any wrongdoing, according to Inside The Games.
The IBU’s board and committee elections will be conducted Sept. 5-9 at the 13th Regular IBU Congress in Porec, Croatia. Two current North American board members, Dr. Jim Carrabre of Biathlon Canada (who ran for IBU president in 2014) and Max Cobb of US Biathlon, are running for re-election. (Scroll down for complete list of candidates.)
The current IBU vice president for development, Dahlin is considered the favorite for the IBU presidency.
“I have chosen to stand for election because I believe I can make a great contribution to the IBU’s vital development work and, because I have been a member of the IBU board recently,” Dahlin said in late May, according to a press release. “I have a clear image of what needs to be done. This means the start-up phase will be short. I have led different types of change processes throughout my career as a business leader, so I feel certain that I can provide good leadership in this. We will produce and get support for an operating/strategic plan in the IBU’s fields of activity and develop and adapt the organisation to ensure it is implemented.
“Many of the member nations have great confidence in Sweden, and we are represented at different levels within the IBU,” he continued. “The work we have carried out in the Swedish Biathlon Federation over the last few years is also experience that will be beneficial when producing an operating plan for the IBU. I can also see that there is potential to increase the level of transparency and democracy in the IBU’s activities.”
In addition to serving as president of the Latvian Biathlon Federation for the last four years, Broka is a politician and jurist who was Latvia’s minister of justice in 2014. She is also a member of the IBU legal committee.
“At the moment, there is a need for change,” Broka told SportaCentrs.com, according to a loose translation. “I have been working in the Legal Committee of the IBU for four years, I have seen a lot of problems between Sochi and PyeongChang. I have seen a lot of things to do, many of my suggestions to change in the statutes have already been taken into account, the situation with doping scandals, in terms of good governance of the organization. To a great deal, the IBU has so far not paid attention and now it is apparent that it is missing. My legal experience would be useful.
“We have done a lot and there is still a lot to do,” she continued. “The environment must be created around the athlete so that he entrusts the federation, and the Member States want to see what the structure is and how decisions are made about the finances.”
On Wednesday, the IBU publicized that it had been cut off financially by the International Olympic Committee (as a result of the Besseberg/Resch scandal) and was onboard with steps toward reform, including an external audit of its anti-doping program.
“The International Biathlon Union (IBU) was informed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that it will not receive any direct financial payments from the IOC until certain requirements concerning IBU’s governance are fulfilled,” a June 13 press release stated. “The IBU regards the decision by the IOC as an encouragement to implement the governance reform steps it has already agreed on in its IBU Executive Board Meetings. These include an external audit of the IBU anti-doping program conducted by the Institute of National Anti-doping Organizations (iNADO) and the establishment of an IBU Ethics Commission (see press release here). The IBU is confident that the requested reports about IBU’s anti-doping programme, its governance reforms and the summary of actions taken by the IBU Independent Working Group, regarding the Moscow LIMS and related data disclosed by WADA, will be to the satisfaction of the IOC.”
Candidates for 2021 and 2023 IBU World Championships were also announced. Only Pokljuka, Slovenia, bid for 2021 World Championships, as opposed to two cities bidding for 2023: Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, and Oberhof, Germany.
Candidates for IBU President (all in alphabetical order):
BROKA, Baiba (LAT), Latvian Biathlon Federation
DAHLIN, Olle (SWE), Swedish Biathlon Federation, current EB Member
Candidates for IBU First Vice-President:
BOYGARD, Tore (NOR), Norwegian Biathlon Association
HAMZA, Jiri (CZE), Czech Biathlon Union
MAYGUROV, Victor (BLR), Biathlon Federation of Belarus, incumbent
LEHOTAN, Ivor (SVK), Slovak Biathlon Association, current EB Member
Dr STEINLE, Franz (GER), German Ski Federation (DSV)
Candidates for IBU Vice-President Finances:
LÄHDESMAKI, Kalle (FIN), Finnish Biathlon Association
Dr LEISTNER, Klaus (AUT), Austrian Ski Federation (ÖSV), incumbent
Candidates for IBU Executive Board (6 seats):
BOYGARD, Tore (NOR), Norwegian Biathlon Association
BROKA, Baiba (LAT), Latvian Biathlon Federation
BUDZISHVILI, Nikoloz (GEO), National Biathlon Federation of Georgia
Dr CARRABRE, James (CAN), Biathlon Canada, current EB member
COBB, Max (USA), United States Biathlon Association, current EB member
FARCNIK, Tim (SLO), Ski Association of Slovenia
Dr FLANAGAN, Grant (AUS), Australian Biathlon Association
GERASIMUK, Dagmara (POL), Polish Biathlon Association
HAMZA, Jiri (CZE), Czech Biathlon Union
Dr KASASHI, Kumiko (JAP), Japan Biathlon Federation
KIM, Nami (KOR), Korea Biathlon Union, current EB Member
LÄHDESMAKI, Kalle (FIN), Finnish Biathlon Association
LEHOTAN, Ivor (SVK), Slovak Biathlon Association, current EB Member
MAYGUROV, Victor (BLR), Biathlon Federation of Belarus, incumbent First Vice-President
PALLHUBER, Erika (ITA), Italian Winter Sport Federation (FISI)
Dr STEINLE, Franz (GER), German Ski Federation (DSV)
VOLODYMYR, Brynzak (UKR), Biathlon Federation of Ukraine
Bid venues for the 2021 IBU World Championships:
POKLJUKA, Slovenia
Bid venues for the 2023 IBU World Championships:
NOVE MESTO, Czech Republic
OBERHOF, Germany
Candidates for the IBU Technical Committee (10 seats):
BERGER, Franz (AUT), current TC Member
BERNAT, Tomas (POL)
HÖNIG, Gerald (GER)
ILIEV, Ventzeslav (BUL)
KORDEZ, Matej (SLO), current TC Member
KORPELA, Kari (SWE), current TC Member
LEE, Keunno (KOR)
LEITGEB, Lorenz (ITA), current TC Member
NAZAROVA, Olga (BLR)
RICARDAS, Griaznovas (LTU)
RIIHIVUORI, Tomi-Pekka (FIN)
SAENGER, Max (USA)
SIMOCKO, Radovan (SVK)
VASSALLO, Christophe (FRA), current TC Chairman
VLASTIMIL, Jakes (CZE), current TC Member
ZAHKNA, Hillar (EST)
Daniel Böhm (GER) has already been confirmed as the athletes’ representative in the IBU Technical Committee.
Bids to host the 14th Regular IBU Congress 2020:
Czech Biathlon Union, Prague
Biathlon Union of Serbia, Zlatibor
The two incumbent elected auditors, Ray Kokkonen (CAN) and Juha Viertola (FIN), are the only two nominations for the 2018-2022 term for this position.
