PHOTO: Bildbyrån
The IOC is considering welcoming back Russian athletes again.
Now a federation goes completely against that decision and puts its foot down firmly against Russia.
– They must remain suspended, says Åsa Llinares Norlin, chairman of the Swedish Parasports Association, to Dagens Nyheter.
Criticism is starting to grow and so are the strong reactions to the fact that Russian and Belarusian athletes can soon return to the world of sports again. The International Olympic Committee, IOC, has already opened the way for the ported athletes to be allowed to return to the Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024.
Russian athletes
The requirement is that the athletes must then compete under a neutral flag and not be allowed to represent their home countries. But now a sports federation is stepping out with a strong stance against Russia.
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It is the International Paralympic Committee, IPC, that does not want to welcome back Russian and Belarusian athletes to the sport again and is putting its foot down firmly on the issue.
– I think that we always want to be united in the sports world, but I think that the situation that we are now facing has so many consequences that it can completely change the geopolitical world we live in, says the IPC chairman Andrew Parsons in a statement.
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The Swedish answer
According to Parsons, it is very possible that the IOC and IPC will make different decisions for the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics next year. In November, the International Para Sports Federation made the decision to suspend Russia and Belarus from all international para sports competitions.
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At the time, there was a clear majority among the confederation members and there is little evidence that it will change in the near future, despite the IOC’s welcoming words.
– There was a clear majority (69–39) among the members of the congress for us to shut down Russia and a little fewer (54–45) who wanted to shut down Belarus. We have a new congress in November, but nothing new has happened and then there is no reason to change the decisions, says Åsa Llinares Norlin, who is chairman of Sweden’s Paralympic Committee, to DN.
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Strong protests
Already during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the IPC was strongly critical of Russia and just four days after the Olympics ended, they attacked Ukraine. After strong protests from the members, the IPC then chose to port all Russian and Belarusian athletes.
– We were a long line of confederations that wrote to the IPC and got them to change their decision, says Llinares Norlin in the interview.
When she is forced to give an explanation as to why the para sport reacts harder than others, the Swedish chairman answers like this:
– That is a good question. Maybe it’s because when you work with people who have disabilities themselves, you get slightly different values. We who have disabilities live with this vulnerability every day, says Åsa Llinares Norlin to the daily newspaper.
It remains to be seen how the IOC ultimately chooses to do with Russian and Belarusian athletes. Then we’ll see what the IPC chooses to respond to that.
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