Russia and Ukraine | Paralympics 2022: is it fair to veto athletes from international events for political reasons?
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) became the latest sports organization to impose sanctions on Russia.
Decided to ban Russian athletes and Belarusians participate in the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games 2022 , just hours of the Opening Ceremony.
In recent days, Russian sport has suffered various punishments ranging from being banned from the Men’s FIFA World Cup 2022, until losing events such as the F1 Russian Grand Prix.
While athletes and organizations around the world have expressed support for sanctions against Russia, the question of the fairness of such punishments has been raised.
“Discriminatory act”
The selection n Russian men’s soccer is excluded from the World Cup 1993 .
The Federation Paralympic Committee Russia (CPR) issued a statement on March 3 in which it accused the CPI of punishing its athletes.
“According to this decision, Russian athletes appear as the perpetrators in the current political complications”, said the CPR.
But the president of the CPI, Andrew Parsons, He said: “To the athletes of the affected countries, we are very sorry that you are affected by the decisions that your governments took last week in violating the Olympic truce… You are victims of the actions of your governments.
“.
The Russian Football Union described the exclusion of Russian teams from competitions as a “discriminatory act” and promised to legally challenge the decision of FIFA.
“ it is obviously discriminatory in nature and harms a large number of athletes, coaches, club and national team employees, and most importantly, millions of Russian fans,” the organization said in a statement.
“Against the spirit of sport”
Former Russian F1 racing driver Kyvat called the recent sports ban “unfair”.
Among the athletes, former F1 driver Daniil Kvyat, who currently competes in rally events, tweeted on March 1 that banning Russian athletes goes against the spirit of sport.
“ It horrifies me to see the nations of the brotherhood in conflict”, Kvyat wrote in the tweet that also contained veiled criticism of the war.
“[Pero] I would also like to highlight and address all sports federations around the world world, including the IOC, that sport must remain out of politics and not allowing Russian athletes and teams to participate in world competitions is an unfair solution and It goes against what sport teaches us in its principle: unity and peace”.
While motorsports governing body FIA decided to allow Russian drivers to compete in events, bans have been issued locally.
The sole Russian representative of the F1 driver Nikita Mazepin will not be able to compete in the UK GP in July after a ruling by Motorsport UK.
“A greater injustice”
Hundreds of people in Ukraine have been killed or displaced since the Russian invasion
Keith Rathbone, sports historian at Macquarie University, Sydney , tells the BBC to question l The impartiality of sports prohibitions is valid.
“The athletes do not decide what their countries are doing, and they’re facing punishment for things they really didn’t have much say in.”
But Rathbone puts that into perspective by adding that athletes can’t protect themselves from crises such as wars.
“When sanctions are imposed on Russian banks and industries, for example, there are many people who also sufferen with no other option“, he adds.
“The invasion of Ukraine is a greater injustice than what athletes may be experiencing ”.
Sports and Politics
Athletes from Russia and Belarus will not be able to compete in the Paralympic Winter Games in 2018 in Beijing.
The British Tanni Grey-Thompson, one of the most successful Paralympians of all time, said that she sympathizes with the Russian athletes, but that the exclusion was a correct step .
“Life in Russia for a disabled person is incredibly difficult and most athletes only finance themselves with the medals they win” , Grey-Thompson told BBC Sport.
“It is difficult, but we cannot continue pretending that sports and politics are not linked“.
“The CPI faced the refusal of multiple countries to compete. Almost every medal event was going to be affected,” he added.
There have been cases of Russian athletes publicly criticizing Moscow for the attack, including Daniil Medvedev, the number 1 male tennis player in the world.
Rathbone, however, says decisions to ban athletes should be made together.
“I don’t think it sends the right message to look at it on a case-by-case basis” , explains Rathbone.
“The strongest message is to say that ‘Russia is out until it moves away from Ukraine’”.
Do sports sanctions work?
Russia is not the first country to be banned from sporting events due to violent conflict.
Previous experiences show that sports sanctions do not put an end to the wars nor do they radically address injustice.
South Africa spent decades in the sporting desert during the years of the apartheid
before officially ending state-sponsored racial discrimination in 1991.
Similarly, the exclusion of Yugoslavia from the European Men’s Football Championship in 1992 did not stop the horrendous violence in the Balkans.
But Rathbone believes that the sports sanctions haven a strong symbolic value given that sport played a very important role in Russia’s recent history: the country hosted the Winter Olympics in 2014 and the Soccer World Cup 2018.
“Sport has been a powerful tool for Russia and President Vladimir Putin”, he argues.
“So if sports organizations are now reevaluating their relationship with Russia, it is a positive step. Even if you arrive very late”.
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