Alternative Games for Russian Paralympians – “We are together. Sport” will be held tentatively from 16 to 21 March in Khanty-Mansiysk. The head of the Belarusian mission at the Paralympics in Beijing, Nikolai Shudeiko, confirmed the participation of Belarusian athletes in them. Earlier, the national teams of Russia and Belarus were suspended from the Paralympic Games – 2022 in Beijing. It has already been decided that for the medals won at the Games “We are together. Sports”, our athletes will receive the same payments that were promised to them for the results at the Paralympics.
Saved the prize money
The tentative dates of the Games “We are together. Sport”, which should become alternative starts for athletes not admitted to the Beijing Paralympics. It is planned that they will be held from 16 to 21 March in Khanty-Mansiysk. About 70 Russian athletes will take part in them in six types of the Paralympic program – cross-country skiing, biathlon, curling, snowboarding, alpine skiing and sledge hockey. Representatives of Belarus will compete with our Paralympic athletes. This was announced by the head of the Belarusian mission at the Paralympics in Beijing Nikolai Shudeiko.
“We are cooperating with the Russian Paralympic Committee and have received an official invitation,” Nikolai Shudeiko told BelTA. — There will be alternative Paralympic Games. Russia is declared in all winter sports, so far we are in skiing and biathlon.
The representative of the Belarusian side noted that the Games “We are together. Sports” will be a kind of “compensation for the physical, moral costs and losses that we experienced and what our guys suffered from.” Shudeiko expressed confidence that these would be “worthy Games”, because in some sports it is the Paralympic athletes of Russia and Belarus who are world leaders.
The Russian government has decided to keep the amount of remuneration for the winners and prize-winners, as it was planned at the end of the Games in Beijing: 4 million rubles for the gold medal, 2.5 million rubles for the silver and 1.7 million rubles for the bronze. It also provides for payments to coaches and specialists.
The Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Oleg Matytsin noted that it was important for the department to organize these competitions for Russian Paralympic athletes, who were unfairly suspended from the Games in Beijing.
– Russian athletes have been preparing and training for a long time, overcoming all obstacles on the way to their dream, and now they will be able to demonstrate to the whole world what excellent shape they are in and what high results they achieve in a fair fight. We believe that sport should always be a symbol of friendship and unity. I am sure that the competitions in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug will be held at the highest level,” Oleg Matytsin told Izvestia.
Initially, the issue of holding the Games in Sochi was considered, but in the end it was decided to hold them in Khanty-Mansiysk.
“Ugra has the best infrastructure for winter Paralympic sports,” Yury Yuzhakov, Deputy Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, told reporters. – It includes a biathlon center, a ski slope, an ice arena “Ugra” and an ice palace. Their level corresponds to international standards.
Not the first experience
For Russia, this is not the first experience of holding alternative Games. In 2016, after the Russian Paralympic team was not admitted to the Summer Games in Rio, similar competitions were already held. Their winners received state awards comparable to bonuses for Paralympic medals.
Then the reason for the suspension from the Games was the report of an independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) led by Richard McLaren, which claimed that a state-run doping system was allegedly operating in the Russian Federation. The McLaren report cited 35 positive doping tests in Russian Paralympic sport that disappeared between 2012 and 2015.
This time, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) suspended Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in the Beijing Paralympics due to the situation in Ukraine. Moreover, on March 2, both teams were allowed to compete in a neutral status, but the next day the decision of the organization was revised. IPC President Andrew Parsons explained this by the fact that representatives of other countries threatened to withdraw from the Games if athletes from Russia and Belarus were not removed from the competition. Therefore, already on March 6, more than 70 Russian Paralympic athletes returned home from China. Our team was warmly welcomed at Sheremetyevo Airport.
“We were dumbfounded by the decision of the IPC. We hope this doesn’t happen again in the future. – Russian biathlete and skier Natalia Kocherova told Izvestia. — For us, sport is a way of life, we are inspired by it. To deprive us of this is the same as forbidding us to breathe. Thank you for organizing the games “We are together. Sport”. When we sang the anthem in the Olympic village, it inspired us. We are proud of our country and will continue to defend it in the international arena.
At the previous Paralympics 2018 in Pyeongchang, our athletes took second place in the overall medal standings, winning eight gold, ten silver and six bronze medals.
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