 | |
| Sport | Shooting Sports |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Europe |
| Membership | 57 |
| Abbreviation | ESC |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Affiliation | ISSF |
| Headquarters | Lausanne, Switzerland |
| President | Alexander Ratner |
| Official website | |
| www | |
The European Shooting Confederation (ESC) is an association of the International Shooting Sport Federation's member federations from Europe, the Caucasus, Cyprus, Israel, and Turkey.
The organisation of European Shooting Championships was first decided in 1952 at the Congress of the International Shooting Union. Successful Championships and regional competitions were organised by the Committee for European Affairs within the International Union. The Confederation was founded as a distinct entity in 1969. [1]
Between 2009 and 2021, Vladimir Lisin served as President. [2] [3] Alexander Ratner was elected President in 2021, taking over from Vladimir Lisin, who had been elected President of the International Shooting Sport Federation in 2018. [4]
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine the ESC and ISSF had banned Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from their competitions. [5] [6] In addition, the ESC stripped Russia of its right to host the 2022 European Shooting Championships in the 25m, 50m, 300m, running target and shotgun. [7] [8] [9]
In March, both ESC President Alexander Ratner and ISSF President Vladimir Lisin were barred from attending the European 10metre Shooting Championships in any official capacity, [10] [11] amid calls for them to step aside. [12] [13] Ratner attended privately, insisting that neither he nor Lisin had links with the Russian government. [14] [15]
In July 2023, the Finnish Shooting Sport Federation (SAL) called for a secret ballot on the ESC Presidency to be added to the agenda of the 2023 ESC General Assembly in October. [16] [17] In particular they complained that Ratner had used ESC platforms to support Vladimir Lisin in the ISSF elections, as well as breaching the neutrality required as salaried staff at the ISSF (Ratner was ISSF Secretary-General at the time). [18] [19] In response, Mr Ratner threatened legal action. [17] SAL appealed the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which found itself unable to impose provisional measures. [20] [16] [21] No ballot was held at the General Assembly. [22]
| Competition | Last edition | Venue | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISSF European Shooting Championships | ||||
| European 10 m Events Championships | 2022 |  Hamar | 18–27 March | [23] |
| European Running Target Championships | 2019 |  Gyenesdiás | 8–15 July | [24] |
| European Shotgun Championships | 2022 |  Larnaca | 24 August - 12 September | [25] |
| European Shooting Championships | 2019 |  Bologna Tolmezzo | 12–23 September 22–27 September | [26] |
Vladimir Sergeyevich Lisin is a Russian billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and majority shareholder of Novolipetsk (NLMK), one of the four largest steel companies in Russia.
The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) is the governing body of the Olympic shooting events. It also regulates several non-Olympic shooting sport events. The Federation's activities include regulation of the sport, managing Olympic qualification events and quota places, as well as organization of international competitions such as the ISSF World Cup series and ISSF World Championships.
Shooting sports have been contested at the Commonwealth Games at every games since 1966 with the exception of the 1970 and 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The European Shooting Championships are the continental championships for ISSF sport shooting disciplines in Europe, including 10m air rifle and air pistol, cartridge rifle and pistol. Sometimes the competition also includes trap shooting, skeet and running target shooting events, usually organized in special championships.
Shooting Union of Russia is the successor organisation of the Federation of Bullets and Shotguns of the USSR.
Monika Karsch is a German shooter and Olympian. She represented her country at the 2016 Summer Olympics and won the silver medal in Women's 25 metre pistol.
Sergey Igorevich Kamenskiy is a Russian sports shooter. He competed in the men's 10 metre air rifle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The Nordic Shooting Region (NSR), established in 1921, is a union of some of the shooting associations from Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Great Britain, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. NSR hosts Nordic championships for some of the ISSF disciplines within pistol, rifle, clay shooting and running target, in addition to some own Nordic disciplines.
Yulia Zakirovna Karimova is a Russian sport shooter of Tatar descent.
Polina Alekseyevna Khorosheva is a Russian sport shooter.
Doreen Vennekamp is a German sport shooter and World Champion.
Silvia Guignard Schnyder is a Swiss sport shooter.
Franziska Peer is an Austrian sport shooter.
Nadine Ungerank is an Austrian sport shooter.
Inside the Games is an Olympic news website formerly edited by the British sports journalist Duncan Mackay. As of 2023, it was sold to a company known as Vox Europe Investment Holding Ltd.
The 2021 European Shooting Championships were held from 22 May to 5 June 2021 in Osijek, Croatia. 1,473 athletes from 52 countries competed.
The Ukrainian Shooting Federation is the national governing body for ISSF shooting sport disciplines in Ukraine.
Mari Bårdseng Løvseth is a Norwegian sport shooter. Her achievements include winning a team gold medal at the 2023 European Games. She was also part of the Norwegian teams who won a gold medal at the 2022 ISSF World Cup in Baku, and a bronze medal at the 2022 European 25/50 m Events Championships in Wrocław.
Jenny Vatne is a Norwegian sports shooter. As of October 2023, she has won four team medals at ISSF World Championships, as well as two medals at European Shooting Championships.
Sheileen Waibel is an Austrian sports shooter. She has represented Austria in ISSF Air Rifle and 50M Rifle at European and World Championship level. Her father is Olympic medallist Wolfram Waibel Jr., and grandfather is five time Olympian Wolfram Waibel Sr.
Alexander Ratner is the new President of the European Shooting Confederation (ESC) after receiving just shy of 55 per cent of votes in a straight shootout with Luciano Rossi. Ratner polled 52 of the 95 votes cast at today's ESC General Assembly in Larnaka in Cyprus. Rossi received 43 votes.
A week has passed since the Presidential election at the European Shooting Confederation (ESC). In normal times, it is feasible the vote would have passed with little traction outside of the world of Olympic shooting. But the fact the winner of the election, Russia's Alexander Ratner, is also the secretary general of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) has caught the attention of the IOC. Whatever Ratner, the ISSF and its President Vladimir Lisin have to say, there is an obvious conflict here. You do not need to be a professor of governance to realise that. Ratner is now the number one in Europe and the number two at the worldwide governing body. There is wearing too many hats, and then there is wearing clearly conflicting hats. The IOC declined to comment on the election but said it "is confident that the newly elected ESC President will take the appropriate steps to avoid a situation that could lead to any conflict of interest".
