Russian and Ukrainian athletes will enter the stadium for the opening ceremony on Friday
Quelle: AP/Andy Wong
Despite Putin’s war against Ukraine, athletes from Russia and Belarus are not excluded from the Paralympics in Beijing. You start under a neutral flag. The German Disabled Sports Association is appalled.
Friedhelm Julius Beucher is a man of clear words. Always been. The 75-year-old President of the German Disabled Sports Association (DBS) quickly and unequivocally took a stand on Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the consequences. In an interview with WELT, he called for the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Paralympics, which began on Friday. The DBS had also requested this in an official letter to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Now it was different. “Disappointing and despondent,” comments Beucher. “I am deeply ashamed of this decision,” adds Chef de Mission Dr. Karl Quade.
The IPC announced on Wednesday that Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete in the Winter Paralympics in Beijing despite the war in Ukraine – albeit as neutral athletes. This means: You start under the Paralympic flag and are not included in the medal table. The IPC decides differently than the majority of the sports world. The DBS considers this decision to be unacceptable and describes it in a statement as “a completely wrong signal in the current global political situation”.
Beucher is surprised and stunned by the decision. “In view of the daily atrocities of war in Ukraine, we would not have thought such a decision possible. It would have taken a consistent decision, now and not after the Paralympics,” says the 75-year-old.
IPC President Andrew Parsons had previously stated that the punishment imposed was the harshest possible under the current IPC rules. And that after the Paralympics, the member organizations will find out “whether violations of the Olympic Truce could lead to possible suspension or exclusion from future Paralympic Games”.
“Moral and political decisions, not legal ones”
Beucher can neither understand nor approve of this justification and the procedure. It’s totally unacceptable to him. “A Russian invasion is raging in Ukraine, and the IPC is invoking rules and paragraphs, we have no understanding of that. In the event of a war, using a set of rules that does not take into account compliance with the Olympic and Paralympic peace is something we cannot understand and, in our opinion, is wrong.”
The Olympic truce is more than an ancient relic. Putin had already broken it in 2008 and 2014. The Olympic ceasefire resolution entitled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal” was now unanimously adopted by all 193 member states – including Russia – on December 2, 2021 at the 76th UN General Assembly.
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Beucher is certain that Putin’s war represents a situation in which no sports association can hide behind paragraphs. Especially if the case of a breach is not discussed in this set of rules. “In a situation like this, moral and political decisions are needed, not legal ones,” he says. “I still can’t and still don’t want to imagine that Russian and Ukrainian athletes will enter the stadium for the opening ceremony on Friday and compete in sporting competitions from Saturday.”
Fifa and Uefa are taking action
Russian football will be banned from all international competitions with immediate effect. This was announced by Fifa and Uefa as a consequence of the Russian war in Ukraine.
The DBS respects a democratically made decision, but cannot accept it. “It is incomprehensible that the IPC makes a completely different decision than the vast majority of the sports world,” says Quade, a member of the Paralympic movement since the IPC was founded in 1989. He adds: “Many national committees have shown total incomprehension for this decision, including us.”
