Some cleared amid ban on Russian team
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Russia was banned yesterday from the upcoming Pyeongchang Paralympics because of its doping past.
However, the International Paralympic Committee said about 30-35 Russians will be allowed to compete in five sports as neutral athletes at the games, which run from March 8-18.
That mirrors the situation for next month’s Olympics. The Russian team has been barred, but 169 Russians have been invited to compete.
“We are not rewarding Russia but we are allowing athletes that we believe are clean to compete under a neutral flag,” IPC president Andrew Parsons said in Bonn, Germany.
It will be the second Paralympics without a Russian team. The country was also excluded from the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics in 2016. Since then, there has been enough improvement to justify allowing Russians to compete as neutral athletes after extra drug testing, Parsons said.
“Although the (Russian Paralympic Committee) remains suspended they have made significant progress and we have to recognize this,” Parsons said. “We now have greater confidence that the anti-doping system in Russia is no longer compromised and corrupted. We have also witnessed behavioral and cultural changes.”
The Russians who will be allowed to compete must have undergone extra testing and a course of anti-drug education.
No one implicated “knowingly or unknowingly by the numerous anti-doping investigations in Russia” can take part, Parsons said.
The team of “Neutral Paralympic Athletes” will be about half the size of the Russian team that competed in Sochi in 2014.
The neutral Paralympic athletes will be allowed to compete in Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, snowboard and curling. They will wear uniforms without any national insignia, and fans will also be barred from waving Russian flags.
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