The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced this on Thursday, revising its decision from the previous day. Several associations, teams and athletes have threatened to boycott the games, which would have endangered the “viability of the Paralympic Winter Games”.
The situation in the athletes’ villages is also escalating, which, according to the IPC, also puts the focus on the safety of the athletes. At a meeting on Wednesday, the IPC decided that athletes from Russia and Belarus could participate as neutral athletes and under the Paralympic flag. This had caused great outrage in the sports world.
Global pressure has apparently made those responsible rethink. “We at IPC firmly believe that sport and politics should not be mixed. But through no fault of our own, war has now come to these games and behind the scenes many governments are influencing our cherished event,” said IPC President Andrew Parsons quoted in the statement.
In the past few days, sports associations around the world have shown solidarity and excluded Russian athletes and clubs in protest against the invasion of Ukraine. In doing so, they also implemented a recommendation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). IOC boss Thomas Bach defended the IPC on Wednesday, despite the controversial original decision.
Bach pointed out that the IPC had adhered to the second point of the IOC’s recommendations on Monday. The head of the IOC had advised the international federations to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to start as neutral participants if exclusion was no longer possible due to time or legal reasons. Parsons was forced to admit: “What is clear, however, is that the rapidly escalating situation so close to the start of the games has put us in a unique and impossible position.”
Source: Nachrichten
