Russia, Belarus athletes can compete at Paralympics as neutrals

Russians and Belarusians are allowed to compete at the Winter Paralympics that open Friday — as neutral athletes under the Paralympic flag and anthem and not included in the national medal standings.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said they were “the strongest possible actions” it could take within its rules in response to Russia invading Ukraine with the support of Belarus’ government.

“We think, in the current IPC rules framework, suspending either [National Paralympic Committee of] Russia or Belarus for breaching the Olympic Truce is something that would be overturned in the German court of law,” said Andrew Parsons, who is president of the IPC, which is based in Germany. “We do have to follow the rules of our own organization under the risk of having our decisions overturned.”

Parsons said that the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee president told him before the IPC board decision, “We would like to see the athletes from Russia and Belarus out.” Parsons said he had not spoken with the Ukrainian official in the hours since the decision.

Ukraine’s full delegation — including 20 athletes and nine guides — arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, according to the IPC.

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An IPC spokesperson said that if a hypothetical ban of Russian and Belarusian athletes was overturned, they would be allowed to compete as normal and count in the medal standings. (Russians would still compete under the Russian Paralympic Committee name (RPC) without the Russian name, flag and anthem due to previous sanctions for the nation’s doping violations.)

With Wednesday’s decision, Russian athletes and teams will be known as Neutral Paralympic Athletes (NPA). Belarus will be Paralympic Neutral