(ATR) The IOC Executive Board suspends payments to the International Biathlon Union pending its presidential election in September.
A statement from the board said funds to the federation would be withheld pending satisfaction of the upcoming IBU elections to "provide a stable governance and leadership structure to the federation".
The IBU has been embroiled in controversy following a joint Austrian and Norwegian investigation into former president Anders Besseberg and secretary general Nicole Resch. Authorities are investigating links between the two executives and cover ups related to doping tests of Russian athletes. Besseberg and Resch stepped aside from the IBU pending the investigation.
In the wake of the scandal the IBU has created an ethics code, reorganized its ethics commission, and called for elections during its congress on September 5-10.
The IOC Executive Board "confirmed it is satisfied" with actions taken by the federation, and an anti-doping audit done by the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations (iNADO). The IBU said it would join the IOC-created Independent Testing Authority. The board also took into account a report from the IBU Independent Working Group, which analyzed LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) data from the Moscow anti-doping lab from the World Anti-Doping Agency.
"These reports are requested to be provided by the IBU to the IOC by 10 September, and a summary presented to the IOC Executive Board for consideration at its meeting on 3 and 4 October," the executive board statement concluded.
Written by Aaron Bauer
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