MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. /TASS/. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has announced that athletes from Russia and Belarus will not be participating in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games in Paris this summer, the IPC’s press office said in a statement on Wednesday.
The IPC also ruled that the Paralympians at the issue were allowed to compete at the upcoming tournament beyond the medal table.
"NPA [Neutral Paralympic Athletes] will compete as individuals in neutral uniforms under an NPA flag, and will not feature on the medals table or march in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies," the statement reads.
"Neutral athletes will compete under a white flag featuring black lettering spelling out NPA. The flag’s use will be limited to TV and sports presentation graphics and during medal ceremonies," according to the IPC. "Medal wins will not be recorded on the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games medals table and should a neutral athlete win a gold medal, the Paralympic anthem will be played."
"The national flags of Russia and Belarus, as well as other national symbols including those which relate to the military are strictly prohibited in the vicinity of any venue associated with the Paralympic Games. The national anthems of Russia and Belarus will not be played," the statement reads.
"As the athletes will participate in an individual and neutral capacity, they will not march in the Opening Ceremony on 28 August or have a flagbearer at the Closing Ceremony on 8 September," the statement added.
RPC’s ongoing spat with IPC
On August 7, 2016, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decided to bar the entire Russian team from taking part in the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on August 23, 2016 upheld the IPC’s ruling that had come on the heels of a report delivered a month earlier by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission, chaired by Canadian sports law professor Richard McLaren, which substantiated doping allegations involving Russian Paralympians.
Besides collectively punishing the Russian national team by banning it from the Rio Games, the IPC also decided to suspend the RPC’s membership in the international organization.
However, the team of Russian athletes, led by RPC head Pavel Rozhkov, was allowed to participate in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where it finished in 4th place in the overall medals standings among the rest of the national participants.
Para athletes from Russia also participated in the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, with a neutral status, dubbed as the Neutral Paralympic Athletes (NPA), given that the RPC’s membership in the IPC was still suspended at the time.
Russia’s so-called "neutral" team of Para athletes brought home a total of 24 medals from PyeongChang, including eight gold, 10 silver and six bronze, ranking second in the overall medal count at the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympics, after only the US national team.