The first Play True Day since the the Biathlon Integrity Unit (BIU) began its full operations takes place today across the world of sport. 

Since 2014, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the clean sport movement worldwide have celebrated Play True Day, to mark the clean sport cause and raise its profile among ath-letes, sports fans and other stakeholders.

With last year’s Play True Day campaign reaching over 50 million people worldwide, the BIU is pleased to again be joining this ever-growing calendar event to support fairness and honesty in sport. This year’s theme is “What does Play True mean to you?” and so, over the course of the day we will be releasing a series of posts asking biathletes and other members of the biath-lon community to share what ‘playing true’ means for them. 

You are encouraged to be as innovative and creative as possible, to create ‘What does Play True mean to you?’ Visuals to share on Instagram, Twitter and other social channels, based on your specific country and language. Don’t forget to use the hashtags #PlayTrue and #PlayTrueDay with your posts, and if you want to follow the campaign in real time you can do so by visiting WADA’s Play True Day Social Media Wall. 

“The BIU is delighted to be part of this growing occasion that celebrates the sporting values that we cherish. At the heart of our mission to protect the integrity of sport is values. Pro-tecting those values for the good of the overwhelming majority – the clean athletes – is why we exist, and so it’s only right that we mark all that is good about our movement alongside WADA, National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs), sports federations, athletes and fans. We encourage everyone to take part,” said BIU Head, Greg McKenna.

The first international biathlon season with the Biathlon Integrity Unit (BIU) in place has now drawn to a close, with the BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon ending yesterday in Oestersund, Sweden.

Prior to the 2020/2021 season’s start (in November 2020), the BIU was focussed on planning for a rigorous integrity programme. Despite the Covid-19 global pandemic, the BIU, determined to ensure fairness would prevail, looked at a more adaptable and intelligence-led anti-doping testing plan. Numerous difficulties such as national lockdown rules and biosecurity measures were overcome in this essential pre-season planning phase.

On the ground, the BIU put its energies into fact finding and assessing the suitability of facilities to conduct the anti-doping programme – such as anti-doping stations – and also the performance of testing service providers such as National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs).

Where possible under Covid-19 restrictions, the BIU sought to engage face to face with athletes and support personnel (and where not possible, via virtual sessions) to better understand their needs, and also to build relationships that would help better protect biathletes’ rights. As a result of this work performed under challenging conditions, the BIU identified many areas of improvement, not least ways and means of ensuring greater visibility for the BIU. Above all, it highlighted the importance of closer engagement for the BIU with athletes and coaches.

Given the recent introduction of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) new International Standard for Education Education (ISE), it is clear that education has become one of the priority areas for the fight for clean sport. The BIU prioritised the importance of education throughout its debut season by delivering Education programmes online. The BIU partnered with the University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology’s (UMIT) Institute for Sport Alpine Medicine and Health Tourism to build and implement a comprehensive clean sport education programme; and to discover what target groups need so that the BIU can provide tailor-made education tools for them. By athletes feeding back on what information they require and how best they can receive such information, the BIU will be able to perform more effective education in future.

The season saw a high number of questions and debate surrounding levels of anti-doping testing. Although some factors make it difficult to draw a direct comparison to the 2019/2020 season, the BIU has highlighted that, for example, this season has seen fewer competitions take place (20% fewer competitions) whilst there have still been 88% of anti-doping samples collected compared to the previous season. The BIU has also stressed the importance of its modern and progressive anti-doping programme being seen more broadly than solely on testing numbers, with the efficacy of its programme being viewed through the prism of its more holistic strategy focussed on testing but also investigations, intelligence gathering, whistleblowing and education. 

During its inaugural season, the BIU has also been developing relationships with NADOs, other sports integrity bodies and stakeholders committed to promoting clean sport. This is something we will continue to do, in order to share best practice and advance the clean sport cause. It is by learning from each other, and upping each others’ game in the anti-doping movement, that biathletes’ rights will be better protected than ever before. 

The BIU is alert to the fact that some individuals involved in cheating are using substances that may not be detectable using current testing methods. To combat this, the BIU has begun a long-term storage project, which has, and will continue to, see samples collected within anti-doping testing retained in a secure environment. As new sample analysis technologies become available, the BIU will use these new methods to test samples in long-term storage. This is yet another method the BIU is employing to keep sport clean and protect biathletes’ rights. 

As the BIU embarks on preparation for the second biathlon season since its launch, it’s important to advise biathletes, coaches, other support personnel and the entire biathlon community that our work is far broader than anti-doping. As the BIU grows, and as restrictions following the global pandemic start to ease, our efforts will increasingly focus on other threats to the integrity of our sport; our role is a broad one, after all, focussed on not just combatting doping but also on combatting competition fixing, illegal betting, fraud and on safeguarding biathletes. 

As always, if you want to share information or if you want to learn more about what the Unit does, we encourage you to contact the BIU at: info@biathlonintegrity.com 

The Biathlon Integrity Unit (BIU) can confirm that the Latvian biathlete Andrejs Rastorgujevs has been charged and provisionally suspended from competition due to a potential Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) in the form of a whereabouts failure according to Article 2.4 IBU ADR.

The BIU has taken the decision to provisionally suspend Mr. Rastorgujevs as a result of three filing failures within twelve months under the Whereabouts Rules as defined in the World Anti-Doping Code. 

The BIU is strongly committed to upholding international Whereabouts Rules, under which it is the responsibility of the athlete to correctly file and detail their whereabouts so that they can be located for out-of-competition testing at any given time. Under the strict liability provisions of the World Anti-Doping Code, it is the athlete’s responsibility to file correct and detailed whereabouts, and, if not, athletes will be held responsible. 

The athlete now has until 31 March 2021 to respond to the charge. In order to protect the integrity of this ongoing case, the BIU will make no further comment at the current time. 

At the heart of the Biathlon Integrity Unit’s (BIU) mission is to restore trust and confidence to the sport of biathlon. To achieve that, we are focussed on addressing a number of different areas in our sport, which range from anti-doping to safeguarding, and from diversity issues to anti-corruption. 

It is the latter issue, anti-corruption, that often biathletes and other individuals within the sport are least familiar with. The BIU wants to remind participants within our sport that they must adhere to certain anti-corruption obligations that prevent any kind of result manipulation. Biathletes can be found guilty of corruption against the sport through actions such as match fixing and betting; and so, to avoid falling foul of the rules, it’s important to be familiar with what you must not do. 

As it relates to match fixing, this involves not:

• Fixing or improperly influencing the result, progress, outcome, conduct or any other aspect of any  Biathlon competition;
• Seeking, accepting, offering or agreeing to accept any bribe to fix or improperly influence the result,  progress, outcome, conduct or any other aspect of any Biathlon competition;
• Intentionally failing to perform to the best of your abilities in any Biathlon competition.

As it relates to betting, this involves not:

• Placing, accepting, laying or otherwise entering into any bet in relation to the result, progress, outcome, conduct or any other aspect of any Biathlon competition;
• Instructing or enticing another party to enter into any bet in relation to the result, progress, outcome, conduct or any other aspect of any Biathlon competition;
• Using ‘inside information’ for betting purposes;
• Disclosing any ‘inside information’ to any party for betting purposes;
• Providing, offering, giving, requesting or receiving any gift that risks undermining public confidence in the integrity of any Biathlon competition.

As is the case with all integrity issues, we encourage biathletes and other members of the community to familiarise themselves with the rules (see Chapter C of the IBU Integrity Code), and don’t forget if you have any questions to get in touch with the BIU: info@biathlonintegrity.com