MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. The criteria presented by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) regarding the participation of Russian athletes at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris are discriminatory and unjust, the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, the IPC announced that athletes from Russia and Belarus would not be participating in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games in Paris this summer. The IPC also ruled that the Paralympians at the issue were allowed to compete at the upcoming tournament beyond the medal table.
"The Russian Paralympic Committee views this [IPC] decision as discriminatory regarding Russian athletes based on their nationality origins," the statement reads. "Denying athletes the right to show that they come from a certain country, or to celebrate victory when their country's anthem is played, is equal to denying them the right to a national identity."
"This is unfair regarding Russian athletes and puts them in an unequal position compared to other national athletes," the statement continued. "Our Paralympians keep preparing for the [2024 Paralympics] to show their utmost results and to once again glorify the Russian sports."
The IPC stated in its statement that "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."
"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," the world’s governing body of Paralympic sports continued. ""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 IPC General Assembly ruled at its session on September 29, 2023 in Bahrain to suspend some of the rights the RPC has within the global organization.
However, the IPC General Assembly cleared Russian athletes to participate under a neutral status in international competition, including in the 2024 Summer Paralympics, which will be held in Paris between August 28 and September 8.
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.