The International Shooting Sport Federation and its Athletes committee, headed by India gold-medallist Abhinav Bindra came for sharp criticism from shooting legend Rajmond Debevec on Tuesday, reported PTI.
Debevec, a three-time gold medal winner in the summer games, opined that gender equality could have been achieved in the 2020 Olympics without scrapping the three existing events.
According to the International Olympic Association’s Agenda 2020, all international sports federations have been asked to make changes to encourage gender equality by the Tokyo games.
Following the directive the ISSF, after consulting with the Bindra-led Athletes committee decided to scrap double trap along with men’s rifle prone and 50m pistol to be dropped from the Olympics to allow new events that will see more women participation at the Olympic Games.
“Abhinav Bindra, with all due respect to his fantastic shooting career, did not do the right thing,” Debevec said.
“I had the opportunity to shoot together with him in competitions, he was really a champion and, unfortunately, he quit shooting after the Rio Games. But I think his responsibility as chairman of athletes committee is really big and he didn’t do the right job.”
“He is very much pro changes and I disagree with him on this. The athletes committee is made up of shooters, these representatives are elected and they do not necessarily represent the opinion of the entire shooting community,” he said.
The Slovenian was peeved at the manner in which the changes were implemented, “I, as a shooter, feel offended because the ISSF led this procedure and accepted the recommendations in a non transparent manner. I feel there was a lack of democracy. The statutory rules of the ISSF demands that such a crucial change be adopted in the general assembly, which was not the case here,” Debevec added.
The five-time world champion was also angered by the the decision allegedly kept in the dark, and led the call for the prone event to be kept in Olympic events, “It should be voted and adopted in the general assembly, but this decision was kept a secret, and the whole procedure was only brought within a small number of senior ISSF officials. That is my biggest concern. I am all for gender equality in Olympics but this could be achieved in a different way, in a way that nobody gets hurt.”
“These are very, very respected events which had been part of Olympics programs since the inception of modern Olympics. I would accept any decision brought in a democratic, transparent manner,” Debevec said.
