Russia's disabled athletes will not be allowed to compete as neutrals at this month's Rio de Janeiro Paralympics after their country was banned because of a state-sponsored sports doping programme. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said in a statement on Thursday it had rejected more than 175 Russian athletes who filed individual cases to try to take part in the Brazil event. "The International Paralympic Committee ... will not allow individual Russian athletes to participate as neutral athletes at the Rio Games", the organisation said on its website (www.paralympic.org).
The same scandal has led to 109 out of 387 athletes originally included in the Russian team for the Rio Olympics being banned, including its entire track and field squad.
A member of the Belarus delegation who carried a Russian flag at the Paralympic opening ceremony to support his country's near-neighbor that is banned from the competition was stripped of his accreditation, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said on Thursday.
The Belarus team carried Russia's flag as well as their own at the Paralympic Games opening ceremony, in a show of support for their near-neighbours, who were banned from the competition in Rio de Janeiro. The head of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) Vladimir Lukin told the TASS news agency that he was grateful for the gesture at the ceremony on Wednesday night.
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