According to the IPC, the reaction of teams and athletes preparing to compete in Beijing “threatens the viability” of the Games and makes the safety of athletes “unsustainable”, even after Russian and Belarusian participants were determined to compete as neutral.
Against this background, the opening ceremony of the Winter Paralympic Games begins on Friday, with the first events scheduled for Saturday. The competition runs until March 13 and features 78 events in six pairs of sports: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, steam ice hockey, snowboarding and wheelchair curling.
As at last month’s Winter Olympics, the events will take place in the three separate zones of central Beijing, Yangqing and Zhangjiakou.
READ: These are the sports from which Russia has been excluded
The ban on Russia and Belarus – how did it come about?
After Russian troops were stationed in Ukraine for the first time last week, the IPC condemned the violation of the Olympic truce by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a resolution calling for conflicts around the world to be stopped from seven days before the Winter Olympics to seven days after the Winter Paralympics. .
Then on Monday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) “recommended” that Russian and Belarusian athletes be banned from participating in international sporting events or allowed to compete as neutrals, where “brief notice” of the decision would make the ban unfeasible.
Earlier this week, IPC President Andrew Parsons said allowing Russia and Belarus to participate in Beijing, while neutral, was “the harshest possible punishment” the governing body has, but pressure from the international sports community forced the IPC to resort to stricter measures.
A statement issued by Ukrainian athletes said Russia and Belarus would use the Games as “state propaganda […] with or without a neutral label “, while Sarah Hirschland, chief executive of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committees, said the decision not to issue a total ban pointless war. “
The IPC was left in a “unique and impossible position,” according to Parsons, who said many countries had threatened not to compete in Beijing.
After earlier saying that Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete as neutrals, the IPC on Thursday banned 71 athletes from Russia and 12 from Belarus from competing in the Games. “You are victims of the actions of your governments,” was Parsons’ message to those affected by the decision.
Belarus was a key military ally of Russia during the conflict, serving as a starting point for troops in Ukraine.
READ: Tennis star Svitolina says all the prizes she won at the Monterrey Open will go to the Ukrainian army
When do the events start?
The action begins in Beijing, the first city to host both summer and winter games, with competitions for medals in the men’s and women’s para-alpine downhill skiing and the men’s and women’s parabiathlon on Saturday.
Host China will have a team of 96 athletes competing in all six sports during the Games. After winning his first medal – gold in wheelchair curling – in Pyongyang four years ago, there are high expectations that this year’s Chinese team could be more successful.
The United States topped the list of medals at the last Winter Paralympic Games and sent a team of 67 people – 28 of whom are making their Paralympic debuts – this year.
Among the athletes returning to the team is Oksana Masters, a 10-time Paralympic medalist in the summer and winter Games who competed in rowing, cycling, cross-country skiing and biathlon. Born in Ukraine before being adopted by her mother, the American Masters is one of the most awarded Paralympic athletes of the last decade. Before the Games she said her “heart breaks” for her homeland.
Other stars of the American team include hockey player Declan Farmer – whose two goals helped the United States beat Canada and win gold in recent games – and Dan Knosen, a former seal who won six medals in biathlon and cross-country skiing four years ago.
In the Canadian team, skier Brian McKeever will compete in his sixth and final Paralympic Games at the age of 42. McKeever, the most ornate man in cross-country skiing at the Paralympic Games, has won 17 medals since his 2002 debut, 13 of which are gold.
Ukrainian athletes flee “bombing and shelling”
Meanwhile, Ukraine has sent a full contingent of 20 athletes and nine drivers to Beijing to compete in biathlon and cross-country skiing.
The team’s arrival in Beijing was hailed as a “miracle” by Valery Sushkevich, president of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee.
“We came here from Ukraine and traveled through Ukraine. It took us many days. We had to overcome many barriers related to the war,” Sushkevich told reporters on Thursday.
“Many members of our team barely escaped the bombing and shelling, but we still managed to get here.”
Sushkevich said he slept on the floor of the team’s bus for the last two days of their trip through Europe before boarding a flight to Beijing, adding: “We could have given up and not come to Beijing. That was the situation; bombs exploded, rockets exploded.
“There is a big war in Ukraine. When simple things could not be organized, the easiest solution would be to stay in Ukraine.”
What are the Covid-19 protocols?
The countermeasures that were in force for the Winter Olympics in February also apply to the Paralympic Games.
This includes a “closed loop” system, including venues, conference centers and hotels, and related to a transport service dedicated to the Games. The full vaccine allows participants to enter the “closed cycle” without quarantine, while those who have not been vaccinated must be isolated for 21 days on arrival.
Once in the “closed cycle”, participants in the Games undergo daily tests for Covid-19 and, if tested positive, are confined in a room in an isolation facility until they return two consecutive negative tests with an interval of at least 24 hours. .
At the end of the Winter Olympics on 20 February, a total of 437 Covid-19 cases were registered among Olympic-related staff after more than 1.8 million tests; 185 of these positive tests are related to athletes and team employees.
Between the end of the Olympics and Wednesday, which marked two days before the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, 17 more cases of Covid-19 were registered.