Russian Paralympians will be able to compete in Paris in neutral status

Domestic Paralympians will be able to compete in the main competition next year. While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has still not made a decision regarding the participation of Russian athletes in the Paris Olympics, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has allowed them to participate in the Paralympics, which will begin in the French capital shortly after, although, naturally, in neutral status, only in individual types and subject to a number of criteria not yet presented. At the same time, the membership of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC), which still considers the position of the IPC “discriminatory,” has been “partially” suspended.

The General Assembly of the International Paralympic Committee, which met in the capital of Bahrain, Manama, determined status of the Russian Paralympic Committee. Last year, shortly after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine and the subsequent wave of “isolating” sanctions against the Russian sports industry, the IPC attempted to revoke its membership, effectively kicking Russian representatives out of the international Paralympic movement. However, the Russian side managed to challenge the verdict of the Berlin General Assembly on the basis primarily of “technical” reasons, and for some time the fate of the RCC remained unclear.

The outcome of the Bahrain meeting was extremely ambiguous. On the one hand, the delegates of the General Assembly, having rejected the proposal for a “complete” removal of the RPC, then voted for a “partial” removal. In fact, we are talking about a two-year disqualification. In explaining it, the IPC referred to violations of some clauses of its constitution. They, in particular, say that members of the structure are obliged to maintain “neutrality and impartiality” in “policy issues” and carry out their activities “autonomously”, without the intervention of bodies “outside the Paralympic movement”.

He did not specify what specific actions the RPC IPC considered to be violations of its charter. But this is not a secret. Earlier, the President of the RKR, Pavel Rozhkov, already admitted that the international organization is not satisfied with the assistance that the Russian Paralympic structure provides to the participants of the special operation, for example, with rehabilitation after serious injuries.

However, this is not the main news from Bahrain for Russia. The IPC, having disqualified the RKR, sanctioned the admission of Russian Paralympians to all competitions under its auspices. These include the most significant competition – the Paralympics in Paris, which will take place next summer. True, Russians will be able to compete only in a neutral status, exclusively in individual events and subject to certain criteria – the IPC promised to publish them “in due time.”

In any case, this very much looks like a breakthrough – especially against the backdrop of uncertainty about Russian participation in the Paris Olympics, which will precede the Paralympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee has still not decided not only on its format, but even on the date for making a decision on it, constantly delaying the process of forming its position.

However, in recent years, the IPC has regularly proven that it is absolutely independent of the opinion of the IOC and the trends it sets when a complex “Russian topic” is raised. The first radical divergence occurred in the summer of 2016 after the release of the first part of Richard McLaren’s famous report on the state system of concealing doping violations that allegedly existed in Russia for several years: it began the active phase of the protracted doping crisis. The IOC, faced with enormous pressure, primarily from Western countries, who demanded the maximum possible punishment for the Russian sports industry, nevertheless allowed the Russian team to participate in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, only allowing international federations to “filter” it composition in accordance with the report data. But the IPC suspended the Russian team from the Paralympic Games in Rio, despite the fact that total disqualification looked in the eyes of a huge number of officials and experts as an excessive measure in relation to athletes with disabilities.

For the second time, the Paralympic structure allowed itself to be “frontier” last year. After the appearance of strict “isolation” recommendations from the IOC regarding Russian sports, supported by the overwhelming majority of sports federations and softened six months ago, the IPC allowed the Russian team to participate in the Paralympic Games in Beijing. However, literally on the eve of the opening ceremony, he canceled admission due to alleged threats to the safety of its athletes and to the “integrity” of the competition due to warnings about a possible boycott from several delegations. IPC President Andrew Parsons, apparently mindful of the Beijing scandal, separately called on the functionaries who came to Manama to “respect” the decision taken there.

The reaction of domestic sports authorities to what happened in Bahrain was as ambiguous and “mixed” as the results of the General Assembly.

Thus, the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Oleg Matytsin, whose statement is quoted TASS, noted that the admission of Russian Paralympians, even in a neutral status, “confirms the authority of the Russian Paralympic Committee in the international arena and its successful work in upholding the true principles of sport.” Pavel Rozhkov, however, described it as “discrimination against Russian athletes on the basis of nationality,” focusing on the suspension of RKR membership. According to Mr. Rozhkov, the IPC punished him for “conscientiously fulfilling his duties in accordance with the goals and objectives defined in the constitution of the IPC and the charter of the RKR,” including “carrying out rehabilitation measures for disabled military personnel.” Pavel Rozhkov said that “Paralympic sport was created by Dr. Ludwig Guttman as a means of rehabilitation of World War II veterans” and “similar events are common practice in many other countries,” including the United States and Canada. The RKR, he said, would consider fighting for “full restoration.”

Alexey Dospehov