Less than 24 hours after allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Winter Paralympics, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) backtracked and, under pressure, announced this Thursday (3) that competitors from both countries are excluded from the Paralympics. winter in Beijing due to the invasion of Ukraine.
The entity justified the decision by saying that many committees from participating countries, teams and athletes had threatened not to compete if Russians and Belarusians were allowed to attend, which “jeopardized the viability” of the event.
The Beijing Winter Paralympics start this Friday (4th) and run until March 13th.
“To preserve the integrity of the Games and the safety of all participants, we have decided to reject the participation of athletes from the RPC (Russian Paralympic Committee) and NPC Belarus (National Paralympic Committee of Belarus),” the International Paralympic Committee said in a statement.
“Ensuring the safety of athletes is of paramount importance to us. The situation in the Olympic village is escalating and has become unsustainable.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had this week recommended excluding Russian and Belarusian athletes from all competitions.
The president of the International Paralympic Committee, the Brazilian Andrew Parsons, had initially justified the decision to allow the presence of Russian and Belarusian athletes by claiming that the statutes did not allow the veto before a general meeting scheduled to take place in the coming months. The decision, however, was heavily criticized by several countries.
At a press conference, Parsons sent a message to the 83 athletes from the two countries who were banned from participating in the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games.
“We feel that they are affected by the decisions that their governments took last week,” he said of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, with the cooperation of Belarus.
“You are victims of the acts of your governments,” he added.
Despite the difficulties caused by the conflict, the Ukrainian delegation arrived in Beijing on Wednesday (2).
At the 2018 edition of the Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, the Ukrainians achieved several podiums in skiing and biathlon. The delegation won a total of 22 medals, seven of them gold, and finished sixth in the overall standings.
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