Decision to ban Russian, Belarusian athletes is not a positive outcome but a necessary one, IPC president says

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International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Andrew Parsons cautioned involving politics in sports after the decision to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing earlier this month but said Saturday that the "magnitude" of the situation in Ukraine called for more severe action.  

Parsons told reporters that the decision to ban those athletes as a result of Russia’s attack on Ukraine can’t be seen as a positive outcome for any involved but added that the IPC had reached its "limit." 

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"No one can be happy with the outcome. Not allowing them to compete for any reason is not good, not positive," he said, via Reuters.  "But our movement was asking us for more. It was absolutely imperative that we changed our decision ... We don't like when politics gets mixed with sport, but we have our limits and we had to listen to our members."

International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons speaks during a IPC press conference in Main news center on March 2, 2022 in Beijing, China.  (Photo by Wang He/Getty Images for International Paralympic Committee)

Following the Russian invasion, the IPC initially announced that athletes from Russia, who compete under the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), and Belarus would be allowed to compete but not under their flag and would also not be included in the official medal table. 

Global calls to ban those athletes from international competition sparked a fury of backlash which prompted the IPC to backtrack, banning them altogether. 

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