“Unacceptable! Wrong signal! I’m ashamed!”
With these words, the German Disabled Sports Association comments on the decision to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in the Paralympic Games after all – and the association is right.
Coward justification
The decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is a disgrace, its justification cowardly. Its own statutes would not allow excluding a country that breaks the Olympic truce.
There is a risk that such a country would sue and win – before a German court, mind you, stressed the IPC President andrew parsons, because the world association has its headquarters in Bonn.
What a coincidence that the German Disabled Sports Association is one of the loudest critics.
The IPC hiding behind paragraphs while people are dying in Ukraine. The IPC is forcing athletes from Ukraine to compete against athletes from Russia, whom Putin will celebrate upon their return – perhaps even after victories in para-biathlon, achieved gun in hand.
Offside
Of course, these Paralympics are not the aggressors, as argued by IPC President Parsons.
But these Russian athletes represent their country, a country that is waging a war of aggression, they represent it even if they compete as neutral athletes without their anthem and flag, they represent the Putin system.
Much of the international sporting world has excluded Russia, but Paralympic sport is sidelined.