BIU publishes annual report 2022-2023

The Biathlon Integrity Unit today published its Annual Report for the period May 2022 to April 2023, a year in which the BIU’s focus has been on prevention of wrongdoing.

In her introductory message to this, the BIU’s third annual report, Louise Reilly, chair of the BIU’s Board, comments: “Our approach is not about retribution. It is about anticipating and attempting to prevent integrity breaches from occurring in the first place. It is about being pro-active, so that everyone in the Biathlon community knows from the outset what is expected of them and how to play fair.”

Out of a total budget of €1.70 million (compared with €1.76 million last year), the report shows that 58 per cent was spent on Sample Collection & Analysis, 14 per cent on Operations, 13 per cent on Prevention (up from 11 per cent last year), 9 per cent on Legal Support, 3 per cent on the BIU Board and 3 per cent on Other.

In the field of anti-doping, the BIU collected 1,389 samples, of which 64 per cent were collected out of competition. In total, 418 athletes from 33 nations were tested (compared with 341 athletes from 31 nations last year).

However, in the report, Greg McKenna, Head of the BIU writes: “We are aware there may be a misconception that the BIU’s work is almost exclusively concerned with anti-doping testing. The truth is that there is much more to the BIU’s work than testing. As I explained in a podcast interview recorded in February 2023, the BIU seeks to support the Biathlon family in protecting the integrity of the sport, and, aligned with that, to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all participants.”

The podcast can be found here.

The BIU believes that education is a key component to all prevention activities, and starting this year, a new focus was set on two important integrity topics, in addition to Anti-Doping: Match-Fixing (Competition Manipulation) and Safeguarding.

The BIU also continued its collaboration with the IBU’s Development Department, with a particular emphasis on Coaches through its contribution to IBU Academy’s Coaches Courses. The focus was on educating young athletes, through educational activities at IOC-IBU development camps, IBU and Junior Cups and Youth and Junior World Championships.

Other highlights of the year included:

·         A new video explaining what the BIU is, how it works and how it can help athletes and all members of the Biathlon Family. The video can be viewed here;

·         A new Safeguarding survey by the BIU, which found that nearly three-quarters of Biathlon’s National Federations that responded to the survey had a Safeguarding code of conduct in place;

·         An outreach, including a quiz, on Competition Manipulation at the 2022 Summer Biathlon World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany;

·         For the first time, the BIU took responsibility for overseeing the process of electing officials at an IBU Congress, after the BIU Board was asked to act as the election committee;

·         The introduction of a mandatory ‘Biathlon Integrity Certificate’, which aims to ensure that everyone dealing with athletes has a basic knowledge of integrity and anti-doping matters;

·         An agreement with the Switzerland-based sports tech and data firm Sportradar to use the specialist equipment provided by its Sportradar Integrity Services (SIS) division to monitor IBU competitions;

·         The addition of Dr. Tanja Haug, a sports law expert with more than 20 years of experience, to the BIU’s Board;

·         The introduction of a ‘Whereabouts Certificate’ that all athletes that are part of the IBU’s Registered Testing Pool must obtain by completing an online course;

·         The recruitment of two new BIU Athlete Ambassadors: Chloe Levins (USA) and Lovro Planko (Slovenia);

The BIU Annual Report May 2022 to April 2023 can be found here 

Note to editors

The Biathlon Integrity Unit is an operationally independent and specialised unit of the International Biathlon Union. It was established in 2019 in order to ensure all of Biathlon’s stakeholders can have confidence that ethical issues in the sport will be addressed independently and expertly.