The accusations of the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA against the World Biathlon Federation IBU are even stronger than previously assumed. According to a WADA report on ARD television, Russia allegedly bribed IBU President Anders Besseberg, who has since resigned, with paid hunting trips and the placement of prostitutes.
Besseberg is said to have proactively forced the award of the 2021 World Biathlon Championships to the Russian city of Tyumen in 2016, despite the fact that the state doping scandal had just shaken world sport.
According to WADA, up to 100,000 euros were paid to IBU members for the purchase of votes. It was not until early 2017 that the IBU withdrew its commitment to Tyumen, as public pressure became too great.
Besseberg has shown “unbelievably loyal and supportive” to Russia, WADA writes. The German IBU Secretary General, Nicole Resch, had practically sole sovereignty over the doping administration programme and denied access to other IBU employees.
All this is said to have contributed to the fact that 17 of 22 Russian athletes competed in the World Cup and IBU Cup last season – and remained undisturbed. Since 2011, the IBU, which leaked last week, is said to have covered up 65 doping cases of Russian biathletes.
Besseberg had most recently been relaxed about the allegations and attacked WADA. “I understand WADA initiated the investigation. I think you’re in a depressing situation. They have only Rodchenkov (Whistleblower Grigory Rodtschenkov, editor) as witnesses and nothing else. And it is clear that no one believes him,” Besseberg told the Norwegian daily Dagbladet: “I think WADA will panic a bit”.
The investigation of doping and fraud suspicions and the acceptance of gifts against Besseberg and Resch as well as Russian sportsmen and coaches, which has been ongoing in Vienna since the end of 2017, continues.