MOSCOW, April 1 French junior biathlon team coach Simon Fourcade said, why he decided to restore the Russian flag on the wax booth of Russian athletes at the World Junior Championships. The older brother of five-time Olympic champion Martin Fourcade stuck the image of the Russian flag on the wax booth at the World Junior Championships, which was held in the USA in February. Signs with the flag of Russia have been removed from the wax cabin. This happened after the International Biathlon Union (IBU) adopted a corresponding resolution.
"I saw a person from the organizing committee of the World Championship remove the Russian flags from the wax booth of the national team in front of coaches and servicemen. It was as if they were being told: "It's your fault!" They were very upset, so I decided to show that I am 100% with them. This does not mean that I support what is happening in Ukraine. I'm too far from it. But I wanted to show that the people in this waxing booth are not to blame for anything. The colors of our flags are similar — red, white, blue. I cut the French flag into three parts and glued it on the door of the Russian wax cabin", — quotes the words of the French "Match TV".
Earlier, the IBU suspended Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions against the background situation in Ukraine. Later, the IBU suspended the membership of the Russian Biathlon Union and the Belarusian Biathlon Federation.