BEIJING, March 4. /TASS/. President of China Xi Jinping officially announced the opening of the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing during the opening ceremony of the event at the Bird’s Nest Stadium on Friday.

"I declare open the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games," Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the ceremony.

According to China’s Xinhua news agency, Li Duan, who is a Paralympic long jump and triple jump champion, winning his medals at Paralympic Games in Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008), "placed the torch in the middle of a giant snowflake-shaped cauldron which later ascended to the top of the stadium, after the torch was relayed among eight Paralympic athletes inside the stadium during the Games opening ceremony."

The Parade of Paralympians kicked off on Friday without athletes representing Team RPC (the Russian Paralympic Committee) and Paralympians from Belarus.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced a decision on Thursday morning to ban athletes from Russia and Belarus from their participation in the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games, which kicked off today in China’s Beijing.

The team of RPC athletes included 71 athletes - 33 (in cross country skiing and biathlon), 17 (sledge ice-hockey), 10 (alpine skiing) six (snowboarding), five (wheelchair curling).

Pavel Rozhkov, the RPC acting president, told TASS earlier in the day that Russian athletes from the national team of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC), who arrived for 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in China, will depart from Beijing on March 6.

The world’s governing body of the Paralympic sports revised on March 3 its previous decision, voiced on March 2 allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in the much-anticipated quadrennial Winter Paralympics event and banned them from taking part in the 2022 Paralympics.

The 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are scheduled for March 4-13. During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022).

Russian Paralympians at Beijing-2022

Due to international sanctions against Russian sports, athletes from Russia were obliged to participate in the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games under the flag and logo of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) instead of the Russian national flag and state emblem.

The national anthem of Russia was also under sanctions at the Paralympic Games in China. The First Piano Concerto by Pyotr Tchaikovsky was selected to be played at awarding ceremonies for Russian Paralympians in Beijing.