As part of the BIU’s Summer of the Athletes’ Voice Campaign, we asked IBU Athletes’ Committee member Simon Eder to tell us what giving a voice to his fellow athletes means to him. Simon writes:

“As a member of the IBU Athletes’ Committee, I was really pleased to see that the BIU has launched its Summer of the Athletes’ Voice campaign, helping to ensure that the worldwide trend towards giving athletes a greater say in the practice and governance of their sport continues.

“Having leading athletes and ex-athletes like Clare Egan, Mona Brorsson, Oleksandra Merkushyna, Pascale Paradis and Chloe Levins empowering IBU athletes in their BIU podcasts, informing them about their rights and showing that the IBU can be a safe and inclusive work environment for everyone is great. It will also help to connect athletes and the BIU more.

“My own journey towards helping ensure that athletes’ voices are heard began with Sebastian Samuelsson, the former IBU Athletes’ Committee member, asking me if I wanted to become a candidate for the next AC elections. I had already thought about it several times before, and am now certain that being part of the AC and being involved in important decisions for the athletes was the right move for me. Sebbe and the other AC members at the time, Johannes Kuehn and Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, gave Lena Häcki-Gross, the other incoming member, and me a warm welcome.

“Every spring the AC sends out a survey to athletes, and as an athlete who competed on the tour for many years, I can see that this is a good option for the athletes to bring up their concerns and needs. We hope to find ways to involve even more athletes in the survey.

“It’s also good to have an athlete representative on the Technical Committee and Executive Board. It’s important to be involved in the decision-making processes. Both sides, athletes and the IBU, can come closer and understand one another’s concerns better.

“The latest IBU Executive Board meeting, EB180, took place in Anif, with preparations for the Congress in September on the agenda. I followed Lena, who was last year’s athlete representative on the EB. We listened to reports from the respective directors of the different IBU departments, including Sport & Event, Development, Communication, Media & Marketing, Sustainability & Strategy and Finance, plus an update from Greg McKenna, head of the BIU, and a Target 2030 presentation from Riikka Rakic.

“I was personally involved in discussions on sport-related topics and formal approvals of the race calendar and rule changes from the TC. Before the meeting I felt a little like the new boy in class, but it turned out that I had very friendly classmates! Back home, I wrote a short report about the topics that most concerned the athletes and sent it to our AC WhatsApp group.

“Now that I’m no longer a full-time practising biathlete, I’m less tired from hard training, like the other guys on our committee. So I expect to be able to dedicate even more of my energy to giving a voice to all of my fellow athletes on forums like the Athletes’ Committee and Executive Board”.