(ATR) The International Paralympic Committee has approved 30 Russians to compete as neutral athletes at the PyeongChang Games.
The IPC banned Russia from the Paralympics in January in the wake of the state-directed doping scandal that tainted the Sochi 2014 Olympics and Paralympics. But the group of Neutral Paralympic Athletes (NPAs) is allowed to take part following a rigorous selection process.
The delegation features 10 athletes who will compete in alpine skiing, 12 in Nordic skiing and three in snowboard. Another five will participate in the wheelchair curling competition. Six Russian guides will support athletes with a vision impairment. The Russian delegation includes a further 39 support personnel and team officials.
The IPC said all 30 athletes met the qualification criteria for the Games and fulfil the strict eligibility conditions for Russians to compete as neutrals made public by the IPC on Jan. 29.
It means that all athletes cleared to take part at the PyeongChang Paralympics are part of a registered testing pool and have undergone at least two anti-doping tests in the last six months. They have also participated in a Russian Paralympic Committee anti-doping education session.
Under the IPC’s Winter Paralympics qualification process, only unused athlete quotas have been redistributed to eligible Neutral Paralympic Athletes.
With all 100 quota places in men’s Nordic skiing already allocated, Russian NPAs will not feature in the competition. There are no NPAs in the Para ice hockey because Russia had already missed the opportunity to qualify.
The IPC said it is still considering entry applications from a small number of other Russian athletes who wish to compete at PyeongChang 2018.
The IPC won’t lift its suspension on Russia until the country’s Paralympic committee meets the reinstatement criteria detailed in January.
Sixty-nine athletes represented Russia at the Sochi 2014 Paralympics.
The PyeongChang Paralympics run from March 9-18.
Reported by Mark Bisson
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
