Will the Russian team go to the Paralympic Games? Our athletes were not allowed to attend the Paralympic Games in Rio. The Girl from Ipanema
The Russian team was suspended from the Paralympics in Rio. The head of the International Paralympic Committee, Philip Craven, explained: the athletes were disqualified because the membership of the Russian Paralympic Committee in the organization was suspended. According to Craven, some Russian athletes were doping before the Sochi Games, and sports organizations and the country's authorities covered it up. The International Paralympic Committee regrets that the Russians will not compete in Rio, but there is no other way out in this situation, Philip Craven emphasized.
“This decision was made in the best interests of the Paralympic movement. The governing body of the IPC is responsible for ensuring fair competition so that athletes can compete fairly under the same conditions. All athletes must play by the same rules. I hope it is clear to you that we asked further questions of Professor McLaren and his investigative team before making our decision. Further forensic analysis of the samples is being carried out. An invitation was sent to the Russian Paralympic Committee so that it could present its documents and materials to the IPC Executive Committee. We tried to establish all the facts, and we all learned that the state doping system exists in Russian sports. Unfortunately, such a program also applies to Russian Paralympic sports. The facts are very unpleasant, this is an unprecedented attack against all honest athletes who take part in these sports,” Craven emphasized.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and President of the Russian Paralympic Committee Vladimir Lukin said that a lawsuit will be filed in the near future with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. According to Kommersant FM, this will happen on August 8. By international rules, Russia has 21 days to appeal the decision to suspend the team. The Paralympics in Rio starts on September 7. The committee can achieve admission of the national team to the start of the competition, Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Rossiya 24.
“Of course, the chance remains, I’m absolutely sure. The team will continue to prepare, we will do everything to ensure that no one experiences any problems. And in parallel, the Paralympic Committee, as a member of the International Paralympic Committee, will defend its rights. It was necessary to simply invite the President of the Paralympic Committee, the Secretary General and openly show what our Paralympic Committee is being reproached for, what claims are being made against it. We read the transcript of the meeting where our leaders of the Paralympic Committee participated, there were no reproaches or complaints from anyone. We are ready, together with Mr. McLaren, the commission that the International olympic committee created, work calmly. The Investigative Committee is studying this entire topic. I can say again: there were no government programs, there are no and there cannot be. Moreover, the RUSADA laboratory system is fully integrated into the WADA system,” Mutko noted.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called the decision to bar the Paralympic team from competing in Rio vile and inhumane. She wrote about this on her Facebook page. Kommersant FM interviewed representatives of Paralympic organizations. They are confident that Russia will be able to defend the rights of its athletes in court.
The head of the International Paralympic Committee, Philip Craven, said on August 7 that a total of 45 altered doping samples had been identified 44 Russian athletes-participants of the Games in Sochi. Initially, the McLaren report mentioned 35 such cases.
The decision on whether the Russian Paralympic team will go to the 2016 Paralympics in Rio will be made on Tuesday, August 23, in the morning, and the verdict will be made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. This was announced by the head of the International Paralympic Committee, Philip Craven. Let us remind you that on August 7, the International Paralympic Committee suspended all Russian Paralympians from the Games. The official reason for the suspension was a report on doping in Russian sports prepared by Richard McLaren.
Paralympics 2016: will the Russian team go to Rio?
Note that the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will be held from September 7 to 18. Meanwhile, uncertainty regarding the participation of Russian athletes in the 2016 Paralympics still remains. Despite this, Russian Paralympians continue to prepare for the Games, still hoping for a positive outcome. The Court of Arbitration for Sport will deliver its verdict on August 23. Experts and lawyers, predicting the outcome of this event, disagree. We can say that the probability of both verdicts - positive and negative - is approximately equal.
Let us add that the 2016 Summer Paralympics includes 22 sports, in which a total of 528 sets of medals will be competed. 4,350 athletes from 176 countries will take part in the 2016 Paralympic Games, excluding the Russian national team and its athletes. Thus, the official list of participants will be approved a couple of days before the start of the Paralympics.
The issue of the participation of Russian Paralympians in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro should be decided at a meeting of the Sports Council arbitration court(CAS) on Monday, August 22. Despite the active discussion of this situation in the media, not much is said about Russian para-athletes themselves. DW fills this gap by listing key facts about the Russian Paralympic team.
First starts
For the first time, Russians took part in the Paralympics in 1988 as part of the USSR team, having missed the previous seven summer and three winter Games. The first attempt was not triumphant for the Soviet para-athletes - respectively 12th and 13th places in the medal standings for summer and Winter Games.
In 1992, the United Team of the former republics of the Soviet Union came to the Summer and Winter Paralympics. She has already performed more successfully - the summer para-athletes took 8th place, and the winter para-athletes were even able to enter the top three. Subsequently, the years of holding the Winter and Summer Paralympics were separated, and Russia participated in them as a separate state.
Successful Winter Paralympians
The Russian winter Paralympic team performs very successfully, it has never fallen below fifth place in the overall medal standings, in 2010 it became second, and in 2006 and 2014 it beat all its competitors.
Moreover, in Sochi, Paralympians from Russia staged a complete rout of their competitors, winning three times more gold medals than Germany, which took second place.
However, after an investigation by WADA, the International Olympic Committee (IPC) suspects that that triumph was not without doping. Richard McLaren's commission found scratches on 18 of the 19 test tubes with samples from Russians from Sochi 2014 sent for rechecking, which may indicate that the samples were tampered with.
Progress on summer games
At the Summer Paralympics, the Russians do not have such a formidable team. However, with each new Games they rose higher in the medal standings. Only 16th at the Games in Atlanta in 1996, in 2008 in Beijing they broke into the top ten for the first time, rising to eighth place, and in London 2012 they became second. However, it would be very difficult to take another step up in Rio - the Chinese have not given first place to anyone since 2004. In 2012, China beat everyone by a huge margin - 95 gold medals versus 36 for the Russians, who took second place.
Leaders
The RKR planned to bring a record number of para-athletes to the Games in Rio - about 230 people. Among them, a strong athletics team stands out, which includes, for example, three-time champions of the 2012 Paralympic Games, runners Evgeny Shvetsov and Elena Sviridova, as well as Margarita Goncharova, who managed to add a victory in the long jump sector to her two gold medals in running.
Context
One of the favorites in Rio could also be the traditionally strong Russian 7x7 football team (gold in Sydney 2000, bronze in Athens 2004, silver in Beijing 2008 and again gold in London 2012). Perhaps the main star of the Russian summer Paralympic team is eight-time Paralympic champion, swimmer Oksana Savchenko, who broke world records in Beijing and London.
What about doping?
WADA reports for 2013 and 2014 allow us to assess the situation with doping in Russian para-sports before the latest revelations by the McLaren Commission. Over these two years, 86 violations were identified throughout para-sports anti-doping rules, a quarter of them (22 cases) were attributed to Russians.
However, in Paralympic sports, Russians were caught doping only four times in 2013-2014 (1 case in athletics and 3 - severe) against the background of a total of 43 violations in sports under the jurisdiction of the IPC. Information for 2015 has not yet been published, and in an earlier period WADA did not publish such statistics.
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Bright opening of the Olympics in Rio
Attack with light and sound
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Bright opening of the Olympics in Rio
Dance performance
The spacious space was suddenly filled with dancers in futuristic costumes, moving harmoniously to rhythmic music. According to the concept, the show showed Brazil as a country with a rich history and modern culture, composed like a mosaic of heritage different nations. And dance is one of its main components.
Bright opening of the Olympics in Rio
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Bright opening of the Olympics in Rio
Houses from underground
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Bright opening of the Olympics in Rio
Chief Director
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Bright opening of the Olympics in Rio
The Girl from Ipanema
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Bright opening of the Olympics in Rio
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Bright opening of the Olympics in Rio
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Bright opening of the Olympics in Rio
The Olympics have begun!
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