Olympia 2018: Despite Russia’s action: Pichler drives to Olympia as Sweden coach

The German biathlon coach Wolfgang Pichler is now travelling to Pyeongchang as Sweden’s national coach for the Olympic Winter Games. This was announced by his lawyer Marius Breucker on Friday evening, following a decision of the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK), in a written communication.

“I am glad that the matter has been resolved and that I can fully concentrate on preparing the team,”said Pichler, the coach of the Russian women Olga Saizeva, Olga Wiluchina and Jana Romanova, who were suspended for life by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in his statement:”My lawyer Dr. Pichler is pleased that the matter has been resolved. Breucker was able to convince the SOK that nothing stands in the way of my participation.”

The SOK had feared that Pichler would not be satisfied with the IOC’s decision of 5 December 2005. The European Court of Justice has ruled that the decision of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2017, according to which no coaches of Russian athletes sanctioned for a doping offence may participate in the games in Pyeongchang.

“After exchange with the IOC, we were able to convince the Swedish NOK that the IOC decision applies to the Russian Olympic Committee and its athletes, but not to Wolfgang Pichler,”said Breucker.

According to his law firm, Pichler has been known for decades as a committed anti-doping fighter and has emphasised from the outset that he was unaware of any doping practices in Russia. Rather, Pichler had made sure that his athletes trained at Ruhpolding in Germany’s winter sports resort and were thus constantly subject to the controls of independent anti-doping organisations such as WADA and NADA.

The two-time Olympic champion Saizewa and her two relay colleagues won silver at the 2014 Sochi Games. The Oswald Commission of the IOC blocked them and more than 30 other Russian Olympic participants from 2014 in the course of the manipulation and doping scandal surrounding the host.