The head of the IBU Anders Besseberg

© EPA/LEE KI-TAE

TASS, 18 Mar. The President of the International biathlon Union (IBU) Anders Besseberg said that he would like to know what criteria the international Olympic Committee (IOC) took the decision on non-admission of Russian athletes at the winter Olympic games in South Korea’s Pyeongchang. He told about it on air of the program “Biathlon with Dmitry Guberniev” to “Match TV”.

At the Olympics in Pyeongchang, Russian athletes competed under the Olympic flag in status of the Olympic athletes from Russia. The IOC athletes were sent individual invitations to the Games. As a result of the biathletes took part in the competition only Anton Babikov, Matvey Eliseev, Uliana Kaisheva and Tatiana Akimova .

“All Federation on winter Olympic sports sent one common letter, we asked on what criteria the IOC to determine who to invite to the Game, and who not to invite, because we all were surprised, because many athletes were not in the invitation list, said Besseberg. – We received a General answer, like, all of the athletes the reasons for the rejection are different. That’s all we could do, we talked with many federations and was really hoping to get a specific list of criteria, but we have not provided”.

“The problem is that the Olympic games have we and the IOC, and he is free to invite or not to invite athletes to the competition. The most we could do is ask a question, to which, however, has not received a response. I really want to know the criteria that allowed Russian athletes, only then will I be able to form an opinion, yet I do not understand”, – said the head of the IBU.

Olympic games were held in Pyeongchang from 9 to 25 February. Competition due to the lack of the invitation from the IOC have also missed the short-tremist Viktor Antonov, skier Sergey Ustyugov, speed skaters Denis yuskov, Pavel Kulizhnikov and others.