"Unsportsmanlike behavior": Why IBU leaders are killing world biathlon with their actions

One of the main Olympic sports of sovereign Belarus, biathlon, is proving its worth even under harsh and discriminatory sanctions.

For the third season, the Commonwealth Cup enjoys great interest and gathers full houses, especially its winter stages. And in February 2025, Raubichi will host the Union State Championship, which will be held in the Olympic format, and the entourage of which will certainly shock the officials of the International Biathlon Union. But with their September decision, they brought the activities of their organization closer to the abyss, not even including the rightful return of Belarusians and Russians to the world arena on the congress agenda, ignoring the recommendations of the IOC.

In cross-country skiing and biathlon, the Scandinavians are trampling everything under themselves. Famous biathletes said more than once that biathlon risks falling behind cross-country skiing, where competition with the Norwegians has been completely killed. And Russia's disqualification closed the issue once and for all. That is, the final nail has been driven in.

The IBU leadership is also ruled by officials from Scandinavian countries, in which this feeling of superiority over others is somehow visible. This is the first step to what we saw in the 30s and 40s of the last century. Therefore, the behavior of the head of the IBU, Olle Dahlin, is not surprising.

Alexander Tikhonov, four-time Olympic champion in biathlon:

"When people are afraid of competition, it is very bad. And when competition is lost, the interest on TV is lost, the viewer interest is lost. There are too many Russophobes."

Any sports organization that spits on the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee today strengthens itself as a talentless group that pursues exclusively its own interests and cultivates fascism within itself and around the sport. And the most noticeable thing for today is that it does it quietly and underhandedly. The IBU statutes have lost their meaning. A new one is needed.