Biathlon-Dahlin steps down after eight years rebuilding trust in biathlon

STOCKHOLM, Sept 17 : Olle Dahlin will leave the International Biathlon Union presidency this weekend after helping rescue the sport from a crisis that threatened its reputation and Olympic funding.

The 72-year-old Swede, who has reached the governing body's term limit, took office in 2018 amid corruption and doping scandals that had prompted the International Olympic Committee to freeze funding for the IBU.

Dahlin's Norwegian predecessor, Anders Besseberg, had resigned after more than two decades as president and was later convicted of aggravated corruption by a Norwegian court.

He was sentenced to three years in prison after the court found he had accepted improper benefits and acted in Russia's favour, including in matters related to anti-doping cases. He has continued to deny wrongdoing, appealing the rulings to higher courts.

"It was a crisis - it wasn't good governance, it was bad governance," Dahlin told Reuters in an interview at a Stockholm hotel. 

"But as someone said before, don't waste the crisis, use it, and that's how it was. There was only one way out in the situation we had."

A former biathlete and cross-country-skier, Dahlin drew on decades of experience as a businessman in the paper and pulp industries to set about restoring biathlon's reputation and integrity. 

"You go in, and you look around, and you analyse," he said. "You set the strategy, you set the organisation and then you execute, and off you go.

"We didn't need a whole lot of time for the analysis phase, if I can put it like that," he added with a chuckle. 

The IBU appointed an external review commission to investigate its past conduct and identify necessary reforms.

"It was obvious that there hadn't been any transparency previously, and we wanted to