Russian athletes banned from Beijing Paralympics after international pressure

After global pressure, the International Paralympic Committee reversed itself and banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Winter Games, ending the organization’s purported “neutrality” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The invasion began just after the end of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, with the Paralympics slated to begin on Friday.

“We are firm believers that sport and politics should not mix,” Andrew Parsons, the president of the IPC, said at a Beijing press conference on Thursday. “However, it is clear that maybe now, due to the current situation, that that is no longer possible. The war has now come to these Games, and behind the scenes, many governments are having an influence on our cherished event.”

Parsons noted that a “really high” and “significant” number of countries were pressuring the IPC to ban Russia from competing.

Parsons said, “Of course we feel sorry for the athletes” from Russia and Belarus, adding: “You are victims of your governments’ actions.”

He also said, “But they are 81 athletes, and we have around 600 other athletes that we need to make sure the environment for them will make possible to have Games and they can live in harmony in the Paralympic villages.”

More than 70 athletes from Russia and a dozen from Belarus were already in Beijing, and 20 athletes from Ukraine also arrived this week.

"A fair decision, a decision against a country that started this war," Valeriy Sushkevych, the head of Ukraine’s Paralympic Committee, reportedly said Thursday. “Now Russia must leave the Games as soon as possible.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the decision “monstrous” and a “disgrace.”

The 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing had been dubbed the "Genocide Olympics" by critics who believe the competition should not have been held in a country responsible for a host of human rights abuses. The United States believes the Chinese Communist Party is conducting a genocide against Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang in western China, though China denies it. The International Olympic Committee has steadfastly refused to criticize the host country during the Olympics.

IOC PUTS 'NEUTRALITY' ASIDE TO MOVE TO BAN RUSSIA FROM PARALYMPICS

Parsons had said Wednesday that Russia and Belarus “will participate as neutrals at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games” — meaning they could compete, but not under the flags of their nations — and that “they will not be included in the medals table.”

After facing criticism from the likes of Sarah Hirshland, the CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the IPC reversed course with a full ban. Parsons said Thursday that in the 12 hours between his first decision and his reversal, “an overwhelming number” of countries had reached out, telling the IPC “that if we do not reconsider our decision, it is now likely to have grave consequences” for the Games, as some national committees had “been contacted by their governments” and had teams and athletes “threatening not to compete.”

The IOC had also said Monday that it was “with a heavy heart” that it recommended that global sporting events “not invite or allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international competitions.” The IOC also said it had withdrawn “the Olympic Order” from everyone who had “an important function” in the Russian government, including President Vladimir Putin.

Its recommendation to ban Russian athletes from the Paralympic Games in Beijing is a markedly different tone than it showed when it repeatedly claimed neutrality and avoided criticizing China over its human rights abuses.

The USOPC also announced Monday that it wanted Russia banned, arguing that “as the world watches in horror while Russia brazenly attacks the innocent people and athletes of Ukraine, this is the only acceptable action to be taken until peace has been restored.”

The USOPC was not nearly as forceful when it came to China's Uyghur abuses.

Hirshland said last May that “an athlete boycott of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is not the solution to geopolitical issues” and argued that “our country faced a geopolitical foe during the height of the Cold War” and that U.S. victories over the USSR "became among the most celebrated moments in our nation’s sporting history.” She did note, however, the “oppression of the Uyghur population.”

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IOC President Thomas Bach vowed in early February to stay “politically neutral” on China’s human rights abuses, saying that speaking up for the Uyghurs could hurt the Olympics.

“If we are taking a political standpoint, and we are getting in the middle of tensions and dispute and confrontations of political powers, then we are putting the Games at risk,” Bach said. “If, at the end, you would have Olympic Games only between national Olympic committees whose governments agree on every political situation, the Games would lose their universality, and with the universality, they would lose their mission. And that would lead to the end of the Olympic Games.”