The Canadian Paralympic Committee is speaking out against a decision to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to return to the Paralympic Games to compete under their own flags and with their own anthems — a move the Canadian organization pushed back against last fall.
The International Paralympic Committee’s general assembly voted in September to reinstate both Russia and Belarus. The Canadian Paralympic Committee voted against it.
“This decision is really based upon the principles we hold most important for sport,” Canadian Paralympic Committee CEO Karen O’Neill said in an interview with CBC Sports on Thursday.
“It’s fair sport. It’s clean sport. It’s principled sport. It’s inclusive sport. And for us, right from the beginning, this is the third time we would have voted on this in the general assembly … and the reasons haven’t changed.”
Last September, the Canadian delegation argued on the floor of the International Paralympic Committee’s general assembly that conditions hadn’t been met to reinstate Russia and Belarus, which violated the Olympic truce with the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“The [opposition to the] reinstatement really spoke to the IOC truce breach after Beijing, and then also not really resolving the systemic doping infractions,” O’Neill said. “We had no evidence to suggest that those two had been addressed, so it’s for that reason.”
Behind closed doors during the lead-up to the vote, O’Neill said it was emotional.
“I would say it’s probably one of the most impassioned, emotional issues that has been on the floor in the general assembly for the last several years,” O’Neill said.
10 athletes from Russia, Belarus to compete
The decision that came out of September’s vote created new backlash last week, after 10 combined slots were allocated to Russian and Belarusian athletes.
That came after a December Court of Arbitration for Sport decision that forced the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) to facilitate the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
Four athletes from Belarus will compete in Para nordic (cross-country skiing), and six athletes from Russia will compete, including two in Para alpine skiing, two in Para snowboard, and two in Para nordic.
The allocation prompted Ukraine’s Paralympic committee to say its team would boycott the Games’ opening ceremony, which will be held on March 6 in Verona, Italy. The Czech Paralympic Committee made a similar decision in solidarity with Ukraine, according to reporting from Reuters.
But that hasn’t changed the International Paralympic Committee’s decision from this past fall.
“This decision cannot be overturned ​by the board or by myself,” International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons said at a press conference in Italy earlier this week.
The International Paralympic Committee took a different approach than the International Olympic Committee, which only allowed athletes from Russia or Belarus to compete as neutral athletes, and only after each athlete was vetted for any ties to the military. Neutral athletes don’t see their flag displayed or hear their anthem when they win a medal.
Canadian Paralympic Committee CEO Karen O’Neill says the Canadian delegation’s vote came down to principles such as fair play and inclusion. (Brittany Gawley/Canadian Paralympic Committee)
“I don’t think it will go away,” O’Neill said about the IPC’s decision. “I think now that democracy is in play, the decision has been made, we’ll abide by the decision. Now it’s our job to show up at the Games, support the decision as a Paralympic committee member and quite honestly, support our athletes.”
In an interview with CBC Sports last fall, Parsons said part of the discussion ahead of the IPC’s vote centred around why only Russia and Belarus should be affected, when there are other conflicts going on in the world.
“I do see that there’s a lot of different reasons why people took that decision, and I also understand why people say that it’s going against what we advocate for when we take decisions like that,” Parsons said in November.
Canadian athletes won’t be at opening ceremony
The Canadian Paralympic Committee will be present at the opening ceremony “as a member of the Paralympic movement” but athletes and team officials won’t be physically present.
That decision is separate from the news around athletes from Russia and Belarus.
The ceremony is happening a distance away from satellite villages in Milan, Cortina and Predazzo, and the logistics became difficult, with many athletes having to compete the next day.
CBC Sports’ Brittany MacLean Campbell sat down with two-time Paralympic gold medallist Mac Marcoux, and asked him about all things Paralympics, including what he would say to athletes before the 2026 Milano Cortina Games.
The Canadian Paralympic Committee was also told it could only bring two athletes and two officials to participate in the opening ceremony to represent the whole team, O’Neill said.
“We, with many of our other colleague countries, displayed our dissatisfaction,” she said. “We just didn’t think it was a fair representation for the team. But bottom line is when we looked at all the factors, most notably the distance for Verona, that’s why we made the decision based upon performance to keep the athletes back.”
Instead, Canadian athletes will have viewing parties and other activities at their villages during the opening ceremony.
The committee decided to issue a public statement about Russian and Belarusian athlete participation just days before the Paralympics are set to begin “in solidarity with Ukrainian athletes and the people in the Ukraine.”
The goal was also to reduce distractions for athletes, who are trying to tune out noise to focus on what they’ve prepared years to do.
“We really wanted to protect and support the athletes’ clear line of sight to be able to focus on the Games, the competition,” O’Neill said. “Despite some of the geopolitical issues going on right now, we truly believe in the power of sport, the power of sport to transcend, bring the world together in a time that we need it more than ever.”