Russia has yet again suffered another international sports ban based on its invasion of Ukraine. The international paralympic committee issued the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes who were set to participate in the 2022 Beijing paralympic winter games that were set to begin on Friday.
The ban was inspired by fear of other countries withdrawing from the Paralympics as long as Russia and Belarus were participants. In a statement issued by the international paralympic committee president, Andrew Parsons; he said that believes that sports and politics should never mix. However according to his statement. it seems like many governments are holding them at ransom because of what is happening in Ukraine and the only choice they have is to dance to their tunes.
Initially, the IPC had allowed the athletes from these two countries to compete as neutrals; a status that makes athletes use the paralympic anthem instead of their national anthem as well as the Paralympic flag instead of their national flag. With the new proceedings from the IPC; a total of 83 athletes from Russia and Belarus has been denied a slot to participate in the 2022 Paralympics.