Biathlon World Championships 2021

Biathlon World Championships 2021
	Men's	Ladies
winner
sprint
persecution
singles
Mass start
Season
Single mixed relay
Mixed relay
← Antholz 2020 Oberhof 2023 →

The 52nd  Biathlon World Championships are to take place from February 10 to 21, 2021 on the Slovenian plateau Pokljuka . The Russian city ​​of Tyumen was originally chosen as the venue , but in the wake of the findings from the McLaren Report , the Russian Biathlon Federation was asked by the IBU to return the World Cup. Since this did not happen, the IBU withdrew the World Cup from Russia.

Venue

At the beginning of September 2016, the delegates of the Biathlon World Federation IBU had to decide on the award of both the 2020 and 2021 World Cups at their meeting in the Moldovan capital Chișinău . Initially, five locations had applied. Oberhof in Thuringia withdrew the application for 2021 after the Nordic World Ski Championships 2021 had been awarded to Germany in June 2016, because, according to the German Ski Association, many positive effects would fizzle out at two consecutive major events in the same country. The application from Antholz in South Tyrol became obsolete after this had prevailed in the award for 2020. Of the three remaining candidates, Tyumen prevailed in the first ballot with 25 votes against Pokljuka in Slovenia with 13 and Nové Město in the Czech Republic with 10 votes.

Election result

Result of the choice of the venue in 2021
place	country	be right
Tyumen	Russia	25th
Pokljuka	Slovenia	13
Nové Město	Czech Republic	10

Withdrawal of the world championships and renewed award

The decision in favor of Tyumen caused astonishment, as serious allegations of organized doping against Russian sports associations had come about in connection with the publication of the first McLaren report in summer 2016 . As a result, the International Olympic Committee had recommended that the seven winter sports associations affiliated with it not to award any major events to Russia until further notice. After the IBU had been presented with a list of 31 biathletes from Russia suspected of doping in December 2016, they asked the Russian biathlon association RBU at the beginning of February 2017 to voluntarily refrain from holding the World Cup until the 24th of the month, otherwise Tyumen would take the event withdrawn. The RBU immediately announced that a voluntary return was out of the question. Legal steps will be examined against a forced withdrawal. At the beginning of March 2017, the IBU announced that the World Cup had been withdrawn from Russia and that it would be re-awarded at a 2018 congress.

Only Pokljuka had applied for the re-awarding of the world championships . Nové Město, which had originally also applied for these world championships, applied instead to host the world championships in 2023 . On September 9, 2018, the IBU awarded Pokljuka the title fights at its congress in Poreč, Croatia .

Raid on IBU headquarters and accused of buying votes

The Federal Criminal Police raided on 10 April 2018, the business premises of the IBU in Salzburg. According to the World Anti-Doping Agency , the raid, which was carried out in coordination with the Norwegian police and Interpol , is related to doping. The investigation is in particular against President Anders Besseberg and Secretary General Nicole Resch .

The WADA accuses Besseberg, among other things, of "having allowed himself to be bribed with paid hunting trips to Russia and the placement of prostitutes" in order to campaign for the 2021 Biathlon World Championships to be awarded to Tyumen. Up to 100,000 euros are said to have flowed to members of the IBU committee for buying votes in favor of the World Cup.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biathlon World Championships in Oberhof from February 8th to 19th, 2023. In: augsburger-allgemeine.de . dpa , June 11, 2019, accessed on June 11, 2019 . 
2. ^ Congress Closes in Chisinau. ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release of the IBU from September 4, 2016 on their website, accessed on February 12, 2017 (English)  
3. ↑ Antholz and Tyumen are awarded contracts for the 2020 and 2021 Biathlon World Championships - Oberhof comes out empty-handed! Biathlon News, September 4, 2016, accessed February 12, 2017
4. ↑ ^{a b} IBU awards World Cup 2021 to Russia. Sport1.de, September 4, 2016, accessed on February 12, 2017
5. ↑ 2021 no Biathlon World Championships in Russia. Spiegel Online, February 8, 2017, accessed February 12, 2017
6. ↑ Russian Federation does not want to voluntarily return the 2021 Biathlon World Cup. Spiegel Online, February 9, 2017, accessed February 12, 2017
7. ↑ Doping scandal: Russians will be withdrawn from the 2021 Biathlon World Cup. (No longer available online.) Handelsblatt, archived from the original on March 4, 2017 ; Retrieved March 3, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ IBU Congress: Executive Board Nominations and IBU World Championships Bids Released. biathlonworld.com, June 11, 2018, accessed June 13, 2018
9. ↑ WM 2021 awarded to Pokljuka, WM 2023 awarded to Oberhof. In: tt.com . Austria Press Agency , September 9, 2018, accessed on March 20, 2020 . 
10. ↑ Investigations against the biathlon boss and IBU general secretary. Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 11, 2018, accessed on August 27, 2020 . 
11. ↑ Doping and prostitution: Biathlon Association in the Crossfire ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at sport.de, accessed on April 16, 2018