From collapse to credibility: How biathlon reclaimed its integrity

Edited transcript of speech

This is a story about a dramatic moment, an implosion of the sport of biathlon, a massive loss of trust and confidence, and how that confidence was rebuilt in the International Biathlon Union (IBU).

In 2018, the police in Austria went through the front door of the IBU in Salzburg, and the police in Norway also launched a criminal investigation into the IBU president. It was quite a big moment for an international sport to have the police coming through the front door, the president under investigation, and other people under investigation.

So how did we get to that point? Well, interestingly, the president had been the president since 1993. A lot of power had coalesced in very few hands, and the commercial interests and the personal power appeared to be more important than the health and integrity of the sport. And there was certainly no independent thinking or decision-making around integrity decisions. 

There was also a lack of trust from the athletes towards the governing body.

A lot of training and effort go into biathlon. It is a brutal sport.  You go skiing off around a mountain, competing with everyone else, then every now and again you have to stop back where you started and either lie in the snow with your gun or stand up with a gun and hit a tiny little target miles away.

Imagine that, and then you've got a board who are very disconnected from the people taking part. Eventually, whistleblowers started coming forward, a number of allegations were made, and the police got involved.

Finding people with the right approach

Later, there was an external review commission, where some very good lawyers from a well-known sports law firm conducted an investigation and produced a constitution for the sport, which included the creation of the biathlon integrity unit to sit independently from the overall organisation of the IBU.

But first, an independent board was appointed to oversee the setting up of the integrity unit, which consists of the chair, Louise Reilly, an Irish sports law barrister and arbitrator, Dr. Tanya Haug, an arbitrator and an experienced sports lawyer, and myself.

Then we had to build the integrity unit. That was Interesting. You've got it all written down. You've got the report.  You've got the constitution. You've got the codes. But it's all about the people. It's about who you choose, what their ethos is, what values they hold, what they will project to the sport.

Think of all the people who had lost confidence in biathlon. The media didn't trust it, the fans didn't trust it, and the athletes didn't trust it.  The sponsors, the broadcasters, they're not trusting it. That's a lot of people to win back.

You don't win them back with a constitution. You win them back with human beings who have the right approach. And we were very lucky, as we were able to recruit in.

That raised interesting questions. What if the person heading the unit doesn't speak the main languages of the sport? What if the person you're bringing in doesn't come from the sport?

I might argue that can be a big advantage. We ended up with someone who didn't come from the sport and who cannot speak the main languages of biathlon. Greg McKenna. He built a very diverse unit that includes people who come from within the sport, who have all the necessary languages, but much more importantly, who have an ethos to say this integrity unit is about independence, independent thinking, and protecting the sport.

Right from the start, it was about safeguarding the mental well-being and welfare of the people taking part and protecting the sport from external negative influences, including drugs.

The integrity unit had to rebuild trust with the athletes. It's taken five years to build that trust but now I see the evidence of it because the athlete community is talking to the integrity unit, telling them things, engaging with them. The athletes believe the integrity unit does want to enhance their well-being, their welfare and think about their safeguarding.

What about the executive board of the IBU?

The board president has been supportive of the new approach throughout, and the relationship between the unit and the board members has matured greatly over five years. The position of the unit is now accepted and respected while quite rightly the unit remains staunchly independent.