“With neutral status and without symbolism”
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has published the participation conditions for Russian and Belarusian athletes in the 2024 Paralympic Games, which will be held in Paris from 28 August to 8 September. The rules regarding the participation of athletes in neutral status were published on the official website of the organization.
These athletes will be officially named Neutral Paralympic Athletes (NPAs) at the Paris Games. The design of game jerseys and all equipment must be approved by the IPC. In addition, it should not contain the colors of the national flag, the country name, emblems, symbols and signs indicating nationality.
Neutral Paralympic athletes will compete under a white flag with black NPA lettering and the medals they win will not be included in the medal tally. If a neutral athlete wins the Paralympic Games, the Paralympic anthem will be played at the medal ceremony.
National flags of Russia and Belarus and other national symbols are banned at Paris 2024. This applies to all facilities linked to the Paralympic Games.
It is also stated that the military symbols of the states whose athletes will perform in neutral status are prohibited.
Additionally, the Russian and Belarusian delegations will not be allowed to attend the opening ceremony, and neutral athletes will not have their banners at the close of the Games.
The International Paralympic Committee will establish an independent body that will assess the suitability of athletes and support staff to participate in the Paralympic Games. Therefore, people actively supporting the conflict in Ukraine and employees of the Russian and Belarusian armed forces or national security agencies will not receive accreditation.
“Discriminatory decision”
The Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) issued a statement following the publication of the IPC, calling the international body’s decision discriminatory and violating human rights.
“The Russian Paralympic Committee believes that this is a discriminatory decision against Russian athletes based on their nationality. Denying athletes the opportunity to show that they come from a particular country or to celebrate victory while their country’s anthem is played is to deny them their right to national identity.
This is unfair to Russian athletes and puts them at a disadvantage compared to athletes from other countries.
Paralympic athletes continue to prepare for the Games to show the highest results and glorify Russian sport once again,” says RKR in the press release.
It was also stated that not allowing RPC members to travel to Paris as support staff could create major difficulties in daily life for athletes.
RKR said in its statement that currently the delegation of the neutral Russian team can consist of 225 people, including 125 athletes. True, this number may increase or decrease.
“To date, the Swimming Committee of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has confirmed that 42 slots have been provided for Russian Paralympic athletes to participate in swimming competitions. Athletes are now preparing to participate in the European Championships, which will be held in Madeira from 21 to 27 April.
Six of the 22 sports still have the chance to earn quotas in the qualifying events: athletics, shooting, taekwondo, triathlon, wheelchair tennis and table tennis. RKR emphasized that three more sports can participate in the Games only upon direct invitation from the IPC and international sports federations: powerlifting, judo and archery.
“They want us to surrender ourselves”
State Duma deputy, Turin 2006 speed skating Olympic champion Svetlana Zhurova criticized the requirements of the IPC in a conversation with socialbites.ca.
“It is clear that they continue to make fun of us and Belarusian athletes. And here we have such a unique situation: the whole world understands very well that they exist, but it is necessary to show that they do not exist. Somehow: we don’t seem to violate your rights, look, we allow it in a neutral status. Then there’s nothing you can do… We don’t want the world to see you at the Opening and Closing Games. I admit that in the end they will not be allowed to come to the awards ceremony and there will be no information that they won. The story goes even further. Warn in advance about the event that will not happen! These names will not be on the winners list; You will never read this on Wikipedia. Meaningless! This is the first time such an offer has been made.
But they probably do this on purpose so that we can read it and reject it. Because then they want us to go crazy and they can say: Look how you’re behaving inappropriately. And then we could be disqualified from four Olympics by 2036.
So we need to analyze how we can respond to this. And if we do not want to participate in it, be sure that they will not charge us any fees for it later,” said Zhurova.
The MP also touched upon the possibility of applying to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by filing a complaint against the discriminatory decision of the TMK. He emphasized that he does not believe in success and thinks that this institution is biased.
“We can apply, but the ECHR evaluates all these cases within a month, only when necessary. When they no longer need it, they can think of five years. The court is one hundred percent biased. They considered the Magnitsky case in one fell swoop, but some other cases may not be addressed for decades. On matters they don’t like. There is also a queue for the evaluation of cases. It is clear that years will pass and not everything will be relevant at least. Then they will tell us: What do you want, are athletes allowed to participate in places where human rights are violated?
Unfortunately, my prediction of the trends I see is not very optimistic: Our athletes will come to the Olympics and Paralympics, and it will be like the last time with Paralympians, when the men were evacuated from the Olympic village. And they went home without even performing. It is clear that only a few will be accepted. But even those units flying to Paris may not participate in the Games, for example, by decision. [президента Франции Эммануэля] Macron. So are they that afraid and afraid of us? It’s important to them that we don’t even go there alone. “They are doing everything to make us reject ourselves,” said the politician.