Pressure mounts on International Paralympic Committee to stop Russia competing at Winter Games

The International Paralympic Committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the participation of Russian athletes at the Winter Games in Beijing later this week.

Pressure is growing on the IPC to ban the Russian Paralympic Committee’s 71-strong team, with athletes from Ukraine pleading for their exclusion in an open letter at the weekend.

Ukraine are due to have 20 participants at the upcoming Games but, as of Monday, none of them had managed to make it to Beijing because of issues travelling out of Kyiv.

Some of the Russian delegation have arrived in Beijing and must now wait to discover whether they will be allowed to take part. 

If they are given the green light, it raises the prospect of other athletes refusing to compete against them.

After an IPC statement confirmed on Wednesday was the earliest a meeting could take place due to travel arrangements, spokesman Craig Spence added: ‘We’re aware of the views of everyone. Clearly, we’d love the focus to be on sport, but at the moment that’s not the focus. 

Somemight consider refusing to compete with Russian athletes if they’re allowed in

‘We’re in regular dialogue with Ukraine and we’re working hard behind the scenes to get them here. The health and welfare of the delegation is our priority.’

The British Olympic Association on Monday took a strong stance against Russian participation at the Games. 

In a statement, they said: ‘The BOA demands the immediate exclusion of Russia and Belarus from the international sports family. 

‘We call on sports federations to ban athletes representing Russia and Belarus from competitions for the time being.’