The Paralympics leadership is in dispute with the UK government over Russia’s reinstatement to the Games, telling Sky News they will not ban countries from competing for launching wars.
The UK was among 33 mainly European countries to sign a joint statement expressing “serious concern” that the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) members voted to lift the partial suspensions of Russia and Ukraine war ally Belarus.
The decision has never been previously explained, but IPC president Andrew Parsons now tells us it “is not linked to participation in wars”.
“Russia and Belarus, they used Paralympic sport to promote what they called the “special operation” at the time,” he said in an interview.
“And this is what led to the first suspension, the suspension in 2023. Between 2023 and now… there is less evidence of that being used again for the promotion of the war.”
That was based on evidence provided to IPC members before the vote by a company specialising in online monitoring.
There is also a sense for Mr Parsons that imposing sporting sanctions over the war in Ukraine is largely a European concern, with the rest of the world more likely to highlight the need to avoid an inconsistent approach.
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Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea were the only non-European nations to sign up to the joint statements from governments about lifting the ban.
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Mr Parsons said: “What came really strong was, why only Russia and Belarus? There are all the conflicts around the world and they have not been suspended.”
But a country launching a war is not a breach of the IPC constitution, he explained, despite the UK and other governments believing that was the case.
Athletes from Russia and Belarus were banned from competing at the Beijing Paralympics shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched in February 2022 amid threats of a boycott.
The confusion could centre on this statement from March 2022 referencing the countries “breaching the Olympic Truce” without being clear if that was the reason for the ban.
Russia and Belarus were then partially suspended as IPC members in 2023 through a general assembly vote for “breaches of its constitutional membership obligations” without mentioning the war in Ukraine.
The countries were then reinstated following a fresh vote in September. But there will be no Russian or Belarusian teams at the Winter Paralympics next year in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, largely due to ongoing bans by sports federations.
That led to the critical governments saying in their recent joint statement: “We view this development with serious concern, given that the Russian aggression against Ukraine continues and the Russian and Belarusian breaches of the Olympic Charter remain.”
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Speaking in his first interview since then, Mr Parsons said: “I understand they are not demanding anything in that statement, only they want to know the consequences of that decision leading up to LA (2028 Paralympics), which is understandable.
“And we will respond to them with information that they want.”
