Biathlon: Koukalova calls for Russian complete exclusion – and receives threats

Czech biathlon world champion Gabriela Koukalova is facing clear threats because of her demand for a Russian complete exclusion from the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang in 2018. This is at least suggested by comments on her Facebook page, where she had previously expressed her opinion.

“Russia will be expecting you at the World Cup in Tyumen,”a user wrote. In a further commentary, the 28-year-old was described as a whore and fascist, who now has “hundreds of millions of enemies” and must “be very, very careful everywhere”.

On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had closed three more Russians to the Olympic Games for life, bringing the number of athletes excluded from the IOC to 22. On Tuesday, on the basis of the results of a study group, the question will be answered to what extent Russian politicians and authorities were involved in the fraud system at the 2014 Sochi Games and whether the huge empire will be completely excluded from the Winter Games by the IOC.

The former biathlon world champion Erik Lesser (Frankenhain) hopes for “a decent penalty”, even if he cannot imagine the exclusion of all Russian winter sportsmen and women “It would be difficult to block someone who has not had a positive doping test. From a purely legal point of view, this will not be entirely tenable,”the 29-year-old suspected, who stressed that “the entire sports community in Sochi has been shitty”.

The opinion of the six-time overall World Cup winner Martin Fourcade illustrates how divided the biathlon camp is. The Frenchman is regarded as a champion against doping, was the spokesman of the ski hunters in the pre-season, who had even considered a World Cup boycott.

But now Fourcade told the French news agency AFP:”If it is proven that there was institutional doping and that all athletes in Sochi (winter games 2014/d. Red.) have benefited from it, these athletes should not go to Pyeongchang. If there are only a few, then we must punish these individuals and not the entire Russian nation.”