In response, the athletes sang the Russian anthem as a team and proudly displayed the flag.
On Wednesday, August 28, the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games will start in Paris, where the Russian flag and anthem will predictably be banned. This situation does not add credit to the leadership of the International Paralympic Committee, because it is no secret that the neutral status for Paralympians is a purely political gesture. But this is not the main historical disgrace for the Paralympic movement.
Memories are still fresh of how the Russians were meanly excluded on the eve of the opening of the Games.
A rush to gratitude
88 Russians will compete at the Paralympic Games in Paris. Our athletes will compete in neutral status, and they will not be allowed to attend the opening ceremony. And in general, the organizers did not skimp on restrictions for Russian citizens. But no one seems to dispute the very fact of our participation. The situation was different two years ago at the Winter Games in Beijing.
The participation of Russians in the 2022 Paralympics without restrictions was not planned in principle. The Russian flag and anthem were banned, but it was initially assumed that athletes would be able to use the symbols of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC), and in case of victory, hear Tchaikovsky’s music.
But at the end of February 2022, the IOC dealt a blow to Russian sports, strongly recommending that federations ban our country from any international tournaments. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) also succumbed to the hysteria and even banned Tchaikovsky, but did not immediately disqualify the athletes from the Games, trying to admit them in a neutral status and without any hint of national symbols.
— The Russian Paralympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee of Belarus will take part in the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing as neutral participants. They will compete under the Paralympic flag and will not be included in the medal table, — the IPC press release noted.
Photo: © RIA Novosti / Pavel Bednyakov
The sports leadership of our country perceived such a gesture as a great victory, noting the high authority of the RPC and praising the IPC for its integrity. But after the Paralympians reached Beijing, it turned out that there was no need to rush with gratitude.
“What will they do to us?”
National Paralympic Committees began to blackmail the IPC with a boycott because Russians were in Beijing. Of course, not all of them, only a small but very aggressive part. However, the leadership of the Paralympic movement hastened to back down. Under talk that the organization is still outside politics, the Russians and Belarusians were removed just before the opening of the Games.
“Over the last 12 hours, we have had a huge number of people contact us, they have been very open, for which I am grateful. They have told us that unless we reconsider our decision, it is likely to have serious implications for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games. Several National Paralympic Committees, some of whom have been contacted by their governments, teams and athletes, are threatening not to compete,” said IPC Chief Executive Andrew Parsons.
The Russian Paralympians had to quickly pack their things and return home. But before that, they decided to spit on all the restrictions, many of them tore off the patches from the flags on their uniforms that had been previously sealed and decided to sing the Russian anthem, which is banned at most international tournaments, as a team. The athletes broadcast all of this on social networks and were not at all afraid of the consequences.
“We hug and sing the anthem that we haven’t heard for 6 long years to the whole village. Well, what are they going to do to us? Suspend us?” Irina Gromova, the coach of the biathlon and cross-country skiing team, wrote on social media.
More than two years later, the Russians returned to the Paralympics. But no one has forgotten the historical disgrace of the Paralympic movement.
