Decision to allow Russian athletes at Winter Paralympics draws backlash
FirstpostRussian athletes were cleared Wednesday to compete at the Paralympics under the shadow of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but the decision by the organisers was met with an immediate backlash. The International Paralympic Committee held a meeting and posted a brief statement saying athletes from Russia as well as Belarus, which hosted troops for the invasion, would be allowed to compete as “neutrals”. “It’s a dark day for the Paralympic movement,” the country’s Paralympic Committee President Friedhelm Julius Beucher told AFP in China’s Zhangjiakou, which will host the cross-country skiing, biathlon and para-snowboard events. Beucher said Ukrainian athletes at the Games would be phoning home each day asking loved ones, “are you still alive, are you okay?” Britain’s Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries also took a dim view of the decision. “They must join the rest of the world in condemning this barbaric invasion by banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing.” But Parsons said the IPC’s decision “is the harshest possible punishment we can do within the framework of our rules”.