Biathlon: Martin Fourcade against Russia’s exclusion

Two-time biathlon Olympic biathlon champion Martin Fourcade has spoken out against collective punishment in the current doping debate about a possible exclusion of Russia from the winter games next year.

“If it is proven that there has been institutional doping and that all athletes in Sochi (at the 2014 Winter Games/d.). Red.) should these athletes not have benefited from this,”said the 29-year-old of the French news agency AFP:” If there are only a few, then we must punish these individuals and not the entire Russian nation.

Fourcade, who has been involved in the fight against doping for a long time, finds it difficult to understand the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) approach:”I have read the McLaren report, but we no longer know what is right and what is wrong,”said the Frenchman. According to Fourcade, it is basically also a mistake to “focus the debate on Russia.”

“Russia does not have a monopoly on doping,”said Fourcade. Since doping is not a purely Russian problem, Fourcade allows the argumentation to block the athletes involved, but not the whole country.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide next Tuesday on a possible expulsion of Russia from the Winter Games (9. till 25. February). So far, the so-called Oswald Commission has already banned 19 Russian athletes who competed in Sochi from participating in the Olympic Games for the rest of their lives.