The Ukrainian Paralympics squad announced in a written statement last week that the country’s athletes will boycott the opening of the Games in Verona on March 6 and that it does not want the Ukrainian flag to appear during the opening ceremony. Even political representatives in Ukraine have announced that they will boycott the inauguration.
This is a protest against allowing Russian athletes to compete under their national flag.
The Czech Republic and Latvia have also announced that they will not take part in the inauguration.
“We will not take part in the opening ceremony in any way,” the Czech Paralympic Committee announced.
Swedish active or The heads of state and government will also not be present in Verona. But it’s not about a boycott.
“We will not take part in the opening, but the reason is that it is such a long exercise for our athletes who will compete the next day, and that is why we said that we will not have any athletes on site,” says Åsa Llinares Norlin, chairwoman of the Swedish Paralympic Committee.
– When we made the decision in September, it was clear to us that we would not boycott the games. But we have also made it clear that we will fully support our active members in their decisions, no matter what they decide to do, whether to participate or not.
When the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) voted to lift Russia and Belarus’ partial lockdown in late September, it meant the countries’ athletes could once again compete under their own national flag.
The decision went beyond the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which insisted that only neutral athletes and no Russian teams could take part in the Olympics.
This is what Swedish ski racer Ebba Årsjö thinks about the boycott of the inauguration:
– I understand how they think, but I also understand those who don’t (boycott). I’ll drive mine race no matter what. I don’t intend to do anything different, except to say that it obviously feels wrong for them to be included. But I won’t let it affect my Paralympics.
Six Russians and four Belarusians will take part in the Paralympics under their own flag.
When the IPK made the decision in Seoul in September, Åsa Llinares Norlin, chairwoman of the Swedish Paralympic Committee, expressed both surprise and disappointment.
But Sweden did not plan to actively show its position during the games.
– We are working on this issue, but for now we are here to focus on the games and competitions. We are having this discussion in a different area and doing it repeatedly. Because the unfortunate thing in Korea was that, in my opinion, there was no answer to the question: “What will be the consequence of such a decision?”
