Munich (GER), 14 April 2017 - In a recent letter to all ISSF Member Federations, and in a subsequent open letter distributed to the media, ISSF Vice President Luciano Rossi attacked the 2020 Olympic Shooting Program recommendations submitted by the ISSF to the IOC last February, providing ISSF Member Federations, media and stakeholders with false information.
The letter of Mr. Rossi suggested that ISSF Secretary General Franz Schreiber and Vice President Gary Anderson discussed the use of laser guns with the IOC "as possible future of the shooting sports." In further attacks published in Italy, he falsely referred to a "secret relationship" and "ongoing negotiations to introduce laser."
There is absolutely no truth to any of this. Of course, ISSF Secretary General Schreiber and Vice President Gary Anderson met with the IOC Sports Department to discuss the submission of ISSF gender equality recommendations, and the IOC did ask about laser shooting because they are well aware that this is now done in Modern Pentathlon.
ISSF authorities explained that there are no laser systems that could be used for ISSF shooting and that the ISSF would not support this. That was the end of the discussion. There are no secret agreements or ongoing negotiations about laser and any suggestion to the contrary is a lie.
Further allegations in this campaign suggest that there may have been agreements between IOC and ISSF or pressure to delete firearms events from the Olympic program. There was never any discussion with the IOC concerning the deletion of firearms events.
The ISSF recommendations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic program that were developed by an Ad Hoc Committee and unanimously approved by both the ISSF Executive Committee and Administrative Council in New Delhi deliberately avoided any consideration of firearms versus non-firearm events, but instead conscientiously sought to evaluate the 15 Olympic shooting events and potential new events based solely on their merits, their potential for future growth and the results of the 2016 IOC event based analysis. The members of these two bodies - including Mr. Luciano Rossi, who is a member of both - were able to study the detailed results of those careful evaluations and the fact that both bodies voted unanimously to support the ISSF recommendations should confirm how convincing those evaluations were.
A release on the ISSF Executive Committee and Administrative Council meeting in New Delhi was published on February the 23rd, at http://v2m.musvc1.net/e/t?q=5%3dBQMVA%26B%3dM%26F%3d7YT%26G%3d9TN%26M%3dnJFH_xqor_91_DsYp_N8_xqor_86IO3.9EKl-IBGxJE.Gx7_DsYp_N8t5IK.gI4P_xqor_96073I56_xqor_94NY9Q%263g1wz%3dE1IH57.D1L%26oI%3dOWD.
The ISSF will continue working in the benefit of the sport, supporting the implementation of IOC Agenda 2020 and of the gender equality principle, and attacks based on false information should not undermine this process.
Media Contact:
Marco DALLA DEA
ISSF Communication Manager
marco@issf-sports.org
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