Biathlon World Champion Anton Shipulin spoke regarding the removal of Russian athletes from the Paralympics in Beijing.
“Today, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) suspended our athletes from participating in the Beijing Games. The same thing happened with athletes from Belarus.
The IPC explained this decision by the fact that athletes from other countries were allegedly preparing to boycott the Games if Russians and Belarusians were allowed to attend.
It’s hard to comment on anything right now. But I will try to briefly state my position specifically on this situation. Forgive me my banality – sport should remain out of politics. Is always. Dot. There are axioms in life, and this is one of them.
When the IPC imposed such sanctions on our Paralympic athletes, who was it punishing? Athletes who, despite everything, overcame themselves every day, trained, went to the goal, fought for the most important award in their life? And why were they, specifically these brave, strong guys, punished? I don’t have an answer to this question. I don’t think the IPC will be able to formulate it either.
The decision of the IPC is dictated by politics. It cannot be judged as right or wrong, deserved or undeserved. It’s just that there shouldn’t be such a decision at all, because, I repeat, sport is out of politics.
The years of training of our athletes are simply trampled on. This is the strongest blow for each of them. I hope our Paralympic athletes have the courage to endure this test.
All of us now need a lot of patience, courage and prudence. And good. In order to avoid conflicts, I close the comments under this post, ”Shipulin wrote in instagram.