The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has confirmed a blanket ban on Russian disabled athletes from competing at the Rio Paralympics as recommended by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Russia says it will appeal the decision.
08 August 2016
Forbidding Russian Paralympians from taking part in the Rio Games is a “grave human rights abuse,” Russian Paralympic Committee President Vladimir Lukin has stated.
“Most of the athletes denied participation so far are totally ‘clean.' Their samples have been tested in various conditions, using various parameters...,” Lukin told journalists, adding that foreign experts also took part in conducting the tests.
He added foreign experts also took part in the tests.
07 August 2016
The World Anti-Doping Agency has issued a statement, saying it “supports the decision taken by the IPC, which we believe is in the interest of clean athletes and the clean sport movement.”
“The IPC’s decision follows the WADA Executive Committee’s 18 July recommendation to the IPC that they consider declining entries of athletes by the Russian Paralympic Committee for Rio 2016 as a result of the McLaren Report,” the statement added.
Prominent human rights activist and the head of Russia's oldest human rights organization, the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseeva, has called Russia’s Paralympic ban “cruel and unjust.”
“I’m very disappointed,” Alekseeva told TASS. “The Paralympians deserve respect, empathy and admiration for the way they overcome terrible diseases. I wrote to the International Paralympic Committee urging for this issue to be resolved in some other way, but, unfortunately, the decision was taken [to ban Russia].”
The whole doping scandal has been initially politicized, Stephen Ebert, an American journalist and political commentator told RT, stressing that the blanket ban imposed by IPC against the whole Russian Paralympic team was a result of the fact that "the IPC is much more a subject to political pressure" and is "under way more pressure from [the West]."
"[Russia] does seem to be hit a lot harder than, for example, Kenya … that announced that athletes could actually buy their innocence, they could buy clean samples for £10,000 ($13,000). So it does seem very [much] directed against Russia and more than … unfair," Alan Moore, brand director of BOSSNA Professional Sports Nutrition and sports columnist, told RT.
The IPC decision violates the international anti-doping rules, Paul Green, a sports lawyer, told RT. “The World Anti-Doping code, if you look at it, only bans individuals. And it is the burden of the anti-doping organization to prove to the comfortable satisfaction of a hearing panel that somebody committed an anti-doping rules violation,” he said, adding that the IPC ban imposed against Russian athletes is very broad and thus legally vulnerable.
"The sort of 'collective responsibility' that is now being spoken by the international sports bodies about has only existed in the Middle Ages, or maybe during Nazi times, and I can't even understand how it has been allowed to become a legal concept again," Mikhail Terentiev, a former gold-winning Paralympian, and the Secretary General of Russia's Paralympic Committee has told RT.
Russia’s Olympic Committee President, Aleksandr Zhukov, has expressed regret that the International Paralympic Committee gave in to political pressure and banned the disabled Russian athletes from Rio.
“The IPC succumbed to political pressure. One can only regret that the IPC didn’t follow the example of the International Olympic Committee, which gave an opportunity to clean the Russian athletes to participate in the Olympic Games,” Zhukov said, as cited by Interfax.
Russia's sports minister Vitaly Mutko told RT that he was "disappointed but not surprised by the decision," which he says was anticipated by Russian officials after the Observer published a story revealing the ban on Saturday.
"There should have been some public procedures in place, members of the Russian Paralympic Committee should have been invited to a discussion, allowed to see the evidence against it, and had a chance to defend itself."
The official has said that the Russian side will now study the decision against it, and that the government would "provide all necessary aid" for launching an appeal, if it is merited.
Mutko also pointed out that the ban is being imposed on a country that spends a lot of resources on Paralympic sports, and Russia should be "thanked and not punished" for its dedication to a branch of athletic activity that has little commercial potential.
The ruling to ban the Russian Paralympic athletes goes against the core human rights principles upon which modern society is built, Maria Zakharova, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said.
“The decision on non-admission of the Russian Paralympic team to the Paralympic Games stuns with its meanness and inhumanity. This is a betrayal of the highest human rights standards, which form the basis of the modern world,” Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
"It's like being hit on the head, and not knowing which direction the punch came from," said Roman Petushkov, the six-time Paralympic Games skiing champion, when asked to comment on the IPC decision by RT.
"The people who are being punished have already suffered a lot, and have restricted abilities. They also, for the most part, have families to support - who rely on the financial award granted by the state for winning medals in their disciplines."
Russia’s Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko, promised to provide full support to the country’s Paralympic Committee (RPC) in the battle against the “biased and politicized” ban from the Rio Paralympics
"RPC has to stand up for its rights. We’ll support them … there’ll be trials in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). If needed be, we’ll go to a civil court,” Mutko said as cited by Interfax.
Banning Russian Paralympians from Rio was a decision made by “one man alone” – the International Paralympic Committee head (IPC), Philip Craven – Russia’s Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko, said.
“Today’s announcement looks like a statement coming solely from the IPC president. Incidentally, he’s finishing his career and, apparently, he decided to do what the Guardian paper recommended to him,” the minister is cited by Interfax.
Mutko also stressed that “the people, who run the Paralympic Movement, aren’t deeply involved into it and they don’t understand how it feels for someone with health restrictions and four years of training to be banned due to some trumped up reasons.”
"This reminds me of the eve of what were supposed to be my very first Paralympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984" said 13-time Paralympic champion middle-distance runner Rima Batalova, who is vision impaired. "I had already packed, and then officials told us that we would be boycotting the Games."
"Unlike a lot of Olympic athletes, who can predict that they will be back in four years, the Paralympians often don't know if their health, their overall state will allow them to compete in the next Games."
“Russia winning both the Sochi Olympics – a surprise - and the Paralympics – which was expected - rubbed lots of people the wrong way, so I think there has been a purely political drive to put our country, which is flourishing in terms of sports, back in its place,” said Irina Gromova, who was due to coach Russia’s wheelchair racing team at the upcoming Rio Games, in a telephone interview with RT.
"What we need to do now is to ascertain whether the International Paralympic Committee has the legal authority to ban the entire Russian team, and then launch the appeal accordingly," Svetlana Zhurova, former Olympic champion speed-skater and current deputy in the Russian Duma, told RT.
“It is not a foregone conclusion either way – the matter will be appealed, and it is very difficult to say which way it will go,” the well-known sports solicitor Stuart Gilhooly told RT.
The World Anti-Doping Agency has welcomed the International Paralympic Committee’s decision to ban Russia from Rio Paralympics, saying that it was “in the interest of clean athletes and the clean sport movement," Around the Rings website journalist, Mark Bisson, reported.
“This is an unprecedented decision. Our team has been very heavily tested in all recent competitions, and we have been found clean every time,” Lev Seleznev, a leading athletics coach and the Vice-President of Russia’s Paralympic Committee, told RT.
“They say there is evidence – I would like to see this evidence, the specific manipulated samples, and the names of those involved. There are 31 days left until the Paralympics, and with such short notice they’ve decided take out this dirty laundry from some cupboard.”
“We are in shock – we have spent so much effort getting ready for these Games, and for us this decision is incomprehensible,” said Alexey Ashapatov, the four-time Paralympics gold medal winner in shot put and discus, in a phone interview with RT. “Now we just have to wait until the next step, because I am sure there will be a legal challenge.”
The appeal against the ban of Russian Paralympic athletes from Rio 2016 has been filed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Lev Seleznyov, head of Federation of Physical Culture and Sport for Persons with Physical Disabilities of Russia, told R-Sport.
The appeal against the ban of Russia’s Paralympic athletes from Rio 2016 has been filed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Lev Seleznyov, head of the All-Russian Federation of Sports for People with Musculo-Skeletal/Mobility Disabilities, told R-Sport.
Russia has 21 days to challenge the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) decision to suspend its Paralympians from Rio, Philip Craven, the IPC president, said.
"In line with the IPC’s Suspension Policy, the Russian Paralympic Committee now has 21 days (28 August) to appeal the decision," Craven said in a statement.
Russia will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) decision to bar the Russian team from the Rio Paralympic Games, Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s Sports Minister said, as cited by TASS.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has confirmed a blanket ban on Russians competing at next month's Games following a recommendation from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The decision was announced at the press conference in Rio de Janeiro where the Olympic Games are now underway.