The soap opera of Russian athletes at the Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing continues. After the acceptance, then their banishment (as well as their Belarusian counterparts) from the competition, announced this Wednesday by the international committee (IPC), the TASS agency (one of the main news agencies in the country of Vladimir Putin) announces that Russia will immediately appeal to the CAS (administrative court for sport) in Lausanne.
The reasons given by the Russian Minister of Sports, Oleg Matytsin, are unequivocal: “Today’s decision by the International Paralympic Committee to exclude our team is a flagrant violation of the rights of athletes and a manipulation of the Olympic Charter and of the values of human life in the pursuit of political objectives,” said the Minister.
We are currently working to establish our legal position to take legal action to protect the rights of our athletes, against the discrimination of athletes because of their ethnicity and the use of sport as a tool for political pressure. It is extremely inadmissible to implement any type of sanctions against the Paralympians, who have already arrived for the tournament. We will quickly draft a lawsuit for the CAS before the opening ceremony and the actual start of the Games. »
As a reminder, these Games officially begin tomorrow and will end on March 13.
