The Winter Paralympics are set to start in Beijing after Russia and Belarus are excluded

Russia and Belarus ban – how did it happen?

After Russian forces were first deployed to Ukraine last week, the International Petroleum Committee (IPC) issued a condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s breach of the Olympic Truce – a decision ordering a halt to conflicts around the world from seven days before the Winter Olympics to seven days afterward. Winter Paralympic Games.

Earlier this week, IPC chief Andrew Parsons said allowing Russia and Belarus to participate in Beijing, albeit neutral, was the “severe possible punishment” at the governing body’s disposal, but pressure from the international Para sport community forced the IPC to resort to tougher action. procedures.

A statement from Ukrainian athletes said Russia and Belarus would use the Games as “state propaganda.” […] With or without a neutral designation, “while Sarah Hirschland, executive director of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said the decision not to issue a complete ban on participation “justifies Russia’s disregard not only of the Olympic armistice, but also of war victims.”

The IPC was left in a “unique and impossible situation,” according to Parsons, who said several countries had threatened not to compete in Beijing.

Having previously said that Russian and Belarusian athletes can compete as neutrals, the International Committee of Belarus on Thursday banned 71 athletes from Russia and 12 from Belarus from participating in the Games. Parsons’ message to those affected by the decision was, “You are victims of the actions of your governments.”

Belarus was a major military ally of Russia during the conflict, and served as a springboard for troops into Ukraine.

When do events start?

The excitement begins in Beijing, the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games, with the men’s and women’s downhill medal events, and the men’s and women’s biathlon on Saturday.

Host China will have a team of 96 athletes competing in all six sports over the course of the Games. Having won its first medal – a gold in wheelchair curling – in Pyeongchang four years ago, there are high expectations that this year the Chinese team can achieve even more success.

The United States topped the medal tally at the Winter Paralympics and sent a team of 67 people – 28 of them to their first Paralympic games – this year.

Other stars on the US team include hockey player Declan Farmer — whose goals helped defeat Canada and win gold in recent games — and Dan Knusen, a former US Marine who has earned six medals in biathlon and cross-country skiing four. years ago.

On the Canadian team, cross country skier Brian McIver will compete in his sixth and final Paralympics at the age of 42. McIver, the most decorated male cross-country skater in the Paralympics, has won 17 medals since his debut in 2002, 13 of which are gold.

Ukrainian athletes fleeing shelling and explosions

Valery Suchkevich, head of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee, hailed the team’s arrival in Beijing as a “miracle”.

“We came here from Ukraine and traveled through Ukraine. It took us several days. We had to overcome a lot of barriers related to the war,” Suchkevich told reporters on Thursday.

“Many of our team members barely managed to escape the shelling and blasting, but we still made it here.”

Sushkevych said he slept on the floor of the team bus for the last two days of their trip through Europe before boarding a flight to Beijing, adding, “We could have given up and we wouldn’t come to Beijing. That was the situation; the bombs were exploding and the rockets were exploding.”

“There is a full-scale war in Ukraine. When simple things cannot be organized, the easiest solution was to stay in Ukraine.”

What are the COVID-19 protocols?

The countermeasures that were in place for the Winter Olympics in February are also being implemented at the Paralympics.

Once in the ‘closed loop’, game participants undergo daily Covid-19 tests and, if they test positive, are confined to a room in an isolation facility until they return with two consecutive negative checks at least 24 hours apart.

At the conclusion of the Winter Olympics on February 20, a total of 437 cases of Covid-19 were recorded among individuals associated with the Olympics after more than 1.8 million tests; 185 of those positive tests involved athletes and team officials.

Between the end of the Olympics and Wednesday, which falls two days before the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, another 17 cases of Covid-19 have been recorded.