Despite the war in Ukraine, athletes from Russia and Belarus are allowed to take part in the Winter Paralympics in Beijing, which begin on Friday. Athletes from both countries will compete as neutral athletes. That means they compete under the Paralympic flag and are not included in the medal table. This was announced by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) after a meeting of its Governing Board on Wednesday. The IPC apparently wanted to punish the affected countries, but not let the athletes suffer.
“I now expect all participants to treat the neutral athletes like any other athlete at these Games, no matter how difficult that may be,” said IPC President Andrew Parsons. “Unlike their respective governments, these Paralympic athletes and Officials not the aggressors. They are here to attend a sporting event like everyone else.” For the time being, however, the IPC will not hold any events in Russia or Belarus.
The executive “agreed that the violation of the armistice could not go unpunished.” The Olympic ceasefire resolution, signed by 193 member states of the UN General Assembly, requires the ceasefire to be observed from seven days before the start of the Winter Olympics on February 4th to seven days after the end of the Winter Paralympic Games on March 21st. Paralympic medals and other honors were revoked from Russian President Vladimir Putin and other politicians and officials.
“What we have chosen is the harshest punishment that we can impose within our constitution and current IPC rules,” said IPC President Andrew Parsons. After the games, we will “find out with our 206 member organizations whether violations of the Olympic Truce could lead to possible suspension or expulsion from future Paralympic Games”. The members should also decide “whether we suspend or terminate the membership of the National Paralympic Committee of Russia or Belarus”.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), athletes from Ukraine, among others, had previously requested the exclusion of athletes from Russia and Belarus in an open letter to IOC President Thomas Bach and IPC Director Andrew Parsons and other national associations such as Germany and the USA. The international football associations Fifa and Uefa had also excluded both the Russian club teams and the national team from all current competitions.
The German Disabled Sports Association (DBS) joined the protest after the Russian athletes and those from Belarus were excluded. “I cannot and do not want to imagine that Russia – not as a nation, but as a Russian Paralympic Committee – will move into the stadium at the opening ceremony of the Paralympics and then compete with Ukrainian athletes,” said the DBS President Friedhelm Julius Beucher said. “An Olympic peace, which is also a Paralympic peace, is not worth the paper if such agreements are broken and this remains unpunished,” said Beucher.