A page will be turned this Friday, September 7, in the world of biathlon. For the first time since its creation in July 1993, its international federation, the IBU, will change president.
The election, organized as part of the annual congress in the Croatian town of Porec, could have taken place under the air of hoopla. After all, the IBU is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. In a quarter of a century, the discipline has become one of the attractions of the Winter Games. Sportingly and in the media, she is doing like a charm.
In Porec, this Friday, there will be no question of blowing out the candles. The institution has been in crisis since last spring and the revelations of corruption by its historic president, the only one to date, Anders Besseberg, accused of having received bribes in exchange for his silence on doping cases. in Russian biathlon.
The Norwegian septuagenarian was pushed into the nettles. The general secretary of the IBU, the German Nicole Resch, has also prepared her boxes and cleared out her office in Salzburg. The end of an era.
To succeed Anders Besseberg, two candidates have been campaigning for several months. But everyone carries their own set of pots and pans. On one side, the Latvian Baiba Broka, former Minister of Justice in her country, president of the national federation for two years. On the other, the Swede Olle Dahlin, a man in the inner circle, vice-president of the IBU for four years, in charge of development.
Obviously, Baiba Broka embodies change. She is young (42 years old). She never sat on the IBU. She brings a fresh perspective. It was not affected by the governance crisis which shook the organization at the time of the Anders Besseberg scandal.
The only problem, but a major one: the Latvian political leader has not been spared from business. Minister of Justice for less than 7 months, between January and August 2014, she was targeted by a press campaign evoking alleged relationships with the criminal world.
Baiba Broka is a member of the National Alliance, a right-wing nationalist party. Since the start of the campaign for the presidency of the IBU, the Latvian has been accused by her Swedish rival of being the candidate of the former Soviet bloc, therefore of Russia, whose biathlon federation is currently suspended. She denies. Logic.
Opposite, Olle Dahlin, stands as a candidate for theestablishment. A member of the IBU steering committee for 4 years, he was considered close to Anders Besseberg. He tried to move away from it, but his past and his career do not really contribute to making him a guarantor of renewal. Above all, her obstinacy in denigrating her rival, accusing her of being in the pay of Russia, shocked many in the world of biathlon.
Scheduled for the end of the day this Friday, the election will take place according to a classic process: each of the 56 national federations has one vote, a simple majority sufficient to win. Clarification: Russia will not be authorized to take part in the vote. It will also not be possible for its leaders to seek any position within the IBU.
In Porec, a peaceful mid-sized town in Croatia, the day promises to be busy for the IBU delegates. On the sidelines of the presidential election, they will have to choose between five candidates for the seat of vice-president, including the sulphurous Belarusian Viktor Maygurov, the Norwegian Tore Boygard, the German Frantz Steinle and the Slovakian Ivor Lehotan. The executive office will also be renewed, with 17 candidates declared for only 6 seats.
Another burning issue: the case of the Russian Biathlon Federation. Suspended since December 2017, it lost its status as a member federation of theIBU and their right to vote. In Porec, delegates will have to decide its future. Not easy.
They will also need to adopt a common position on the place of the discipline in the Olympic Games. Last July, the IOC notified the IBU of its decision to reduce the presence of biathlon at the Beijing 2022 Games, with 20 fewer quotas. At the time, the IBU cried foul. Its congress must now adopt new qualification rules for the next Winter Games.
Finally, the IBU will put to a vote the allocation of the Worlds in 2021 and 2023. For the first of these two editions, the Slovenian town of Pokljuka is alone in the running. But it will be necessary to decide, for the Worlds in 2023, the applications of the Czechs from Nove-Mesto and the Germans from Oberhof.
