Following an overwhelming number of members threatening not to compete, the IPC Governing Board held a specially convened meeting and there decided to refuse the Para athlete entries from the RPC and NPC Belarus for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.
The IPC’s full statement can be found here: https://www.paralympic.org/news/ipc-decline-athlete-entries-rpc-and-npc-belarus-beijing-2022
Paralympics New Zealand is pleased to see this decision to allow Russian and Belarusian Para athletes to compete has been reversed.
While we understand the legal and constitutional constraints factored in the original decision, we do not believe enough priority was placed on the damaging impact their attendance would have on the spirit of the Paralympic Games, and the safety and wellbeing of all Para athletes.
We stand with the IPC’s hope that we can get back to a situation when the talk and focus is fully on the power of sport to transform the lives of persons with disabilities, and the best of humanity.
