Claire Egan, head of the International Biathlon Federation (IBU) athletes’ commission, said that the majority of biathletes support the suspension of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
“We conducted a survey in April where we invited all active athletes to participate. This survey is anonymous. We received around 160 responses from representatives of 31 countries. About 70 percent of athletes support the current suspension.
My role is to represent the opinion of the majority of athletes. And we have a clear position on that at the IBU,” says Egan “Sport Express”.
Recall that the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced last spring its decision to allow Belarusian and Russian biathletes to participate in the World Cup and IBU stages only as neutral athletes. As a result, the Russians decided to skip these competitions. In September, the organization extended the suspension period.
At the end of March, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that the Russians be allowed to have a neutral status if the athletes did not take an active part in supporting the conflict.
Formerly Claire Egan spoke on justice, the dismissal of Russian and Belarusian athletes.