Paralympics GB boss lifts lid on 24 hours of turmoil at Beijing Winter Games

High in the mountains outside Beijing the boss of Britain’s Winter Paralympics team paused and allowed himself a deep breath.

Phil Smith had just heard Russia and Belarus were being kicked out of the Games, bringing an end to a turbulent 24 hours for the entire Paralympic movement.

Organisers had overturned their contentious decision to allow the two pariah nations to compete as “neutral” athletes and for the first time the roar of dissent had quietened enough for him to hear himself think.

“It was starting to become a big distraction away from the Games,” Smith admitted with some understatement.

“Clearly we welcome the decision. It brings the International Paralympic Committee into line with where our position has been throughout.

“We didn’t feel it was compatible with the values of the Paralympic movement for Russian or Belarusian athletes to compete given what horror we’re seeing unfold in Ukraine.

“What’s going on there is abhorrent and we stand with our Ukrainian friends here and the wider Ukrainian community.”

A rapidly changing situation may even now not have found its final resting place as Russia have lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

That could, in theory at least, force Britain to come face to face with Putin’s country in a wheelchair curling match scheduled for Sunday.

But for now Smith is simply relieved the flame will be lit today and a Games that 24 hours ago appeared at risk of having to be abandoned, will get underway.

He revealed that Britain was not one of the teams threatening to boycott. Nor, he said, did his athletes have first hand knowledge of what IPC president Andrew Parsons termed a “very, very volatile environment” in the Village.

“Clearly there was an issue, there