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Team Ukraine have launched a stinging attack on the International Paralympic Committee and Winter Paralympics organisers, claiming they have been under “systemic pressure” to reduce their presence at the Games.
The Ukraine National Paralympic Committee has made four specific allegations against the IPC and the Milano Cortina OCOG, alleging mistreatment of its athletes and a “systematic” attempt to remove flags from the team base and spectators.
It alleges that representatives of the OCOG forced the removal of the Ukrainian national flag from inside the Paralympic village. It claims that the gold medallist in the para biathlon, Oleksandra Kononova, was told to remove earrings bearing the flag and the message “Stop War” as she prepared to take to the medal podium. It also claims that the family of the cross-country skier Taras Rad had Ukrainian flags taken from them as they watched him compete. Finally, it alleges that tactical meetings have been consistently disrupted by members of the IPC and OCOG.
“The National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine and the national Paralympic team of Ukraine, its athletes and coaches have been subjected to systematic pressure from representatives of the International Paralympic Committee and the Organising Committee of the Games,” the statement said.
“[Ukraine] has participated for 30 consecutive years in all summer and winter Paralympic Games. But never before have our team and the leaders of the team headquarters experienced such openly negative manifestations and even obstacles in relation to Ukrainians as representatives of the National Paralympic Committee.
“There are systemic and unprecedented manifestations of pressure from representatives of the IPC in relation to the Ukrainian team. Obviously, there appears the impression of an incomprehensible and very special partnership of the IPC with the NPCs of Russia and Belarus.”
In a statement the OCOG said: “we are reviewing the matters referenced, several of which we are hearing about for the first time.” The IPC, meanwhile, defended the decision to request Kononova remove her earrings.
“We noticed as the athlete was going to the podium that she was wearing earrings that said ‘Stop War’,” a spokesperson said. “A member of staff spoke with the athlete, told her they would most likely have been against our regulations and said: ‘Can you remove them?’ The athlete agreed. So for us, that was the end of the matter.”
The spokesperson continued: “We are supremely empathetic with the situation that the Ukrainian people face right now but no matter how many Games the nation has competed at, that doesn’t give them a green light to break the rules. And ahead of these Games, we clearly communicated to all participating nations the supplementary regulations regarding demonstrations.”
Ukraine have won 10 medals at these Games, including three golds, though they have slipped down the table in recent days. On Wednesday the Ukrainian cross-country skier Romana Lobasheva was in direct competition with the Russian Anastasiia Bagiian, who received one of six “bipartite” invitations from the IPC to compete in Italy. Bagiian won gold in the visually impaired 10km interval start classic, while Lobasheva finished in ninth place.
