Biathlon Olympic champion Ricco Gross, coach of the Russian men’s team, has informed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the lockout of his athlete Anton Schipulin from the winter games in Pyeongchang (9th place). till 25. Neither the Biathlon World Association nor the IOC have indicated anything in this direction. Of course, we are now falling out of the sky,”said Groß in an interview with t-online. de.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov warned against excessive reactions after a total of 111 Russian athletes were ignored, saying,”It is important to avoid words like boycott. The most important thing is to keep cool in the spirit of our athletes. We must defend their rights as well as possible and talk to the IOC,”said Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin.
The IOC’s “Invitation Review Panel”, which determines which sportsmen and women are eligible for a start in South Korea, lacks any understanding for the decision:”From a sporting point of view, I don’t think it’s fair for the IOC to announce such a thing so close to the Olympic Games – especially since no justification or proofs have been given so far,”said the four-time Olympic champion from Saxony:”Why is it that an athlete is allowed to start in the World Cup and participate in the Olympic Games? On the one hand, the Biathlon World Association says that everything is in order and that he (Shipulin, d. Red.) in the World Cup. On the other hand, the IOC says that everything is not alright and that he is not allowed to start in Pyeongchang. There must be a public reason for this.”
Valerie Fourneyron, Chairman of the Review Panel, had indicated reasons for deleting 111 athletes from a list of 500 candidates in an IOC statement on Tuesday:”When compiling the list, the aim was that there should be no doubt about the cleanliness of the list, but not necessarily that an athlete was doped.
The analysis of the database of the Moscow Doping Control Laboratory’s World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has allegedly revealed anomalies among the athletes concerned. The initiation of proceedings could be too tricky for the IOC for legal reasons, however, which is why the ring order as the organizer of the Games chose a detour and simply did not invite the athletes to Pyeongchang.