BRING HOME THE GOLD!
What is one of the main reasons athletes go out for the Olympic or Paralympic Games? For their country. They want to be able to represent their home country and bring home the gold medal to them. Why represent another country that you are not from when you can show off where you are from and display pride in your homeland! The International Paralympic Committee made the executive decision in March of 2022 that athletes participating in the Paralympic Games who were from Russia or Belarus were not able to represent their own countries, but rather represent the Paralympic flag and the Paralympic anthem, to compete as neutral athletes/support personnel in the Games. In addition, they are also not allowed to have their country displayed anywhere on their attire nor, if and when, they win medals will those medals be counted towards their country but rather towards them as an individual (IPC Make Decisions Regarding RPC and NPC Belarus, 2022). Later in November of 2022, the International Paralympic Committee banned athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing in any future Paralympic Games that are held, nor are they allowed to host the games. Many of the staff of the Russian and Belarus government, such as the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has had the Paralympic Honor bestowed withdrawn from him. This all stemmed from the Russia-Ukraine war that started right before the Winter Paralympics in Beijing in March 2022. Immediately as soon as the news got out, they were banned which was right before the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games (Associated Press, 2023).
Determination, Courage, Inspiration, and Equality are the four main values that the International Paralympic Committee is based on. Based on these, I think that it is and is not fair that Russia and Belarus should be potentially banned. I think it is fair since they announced war on Ukraine and it is very sad, all of the bombings and deaths that took place; however, on the other hand, there are possibilities that not every single person from Russia or Belarus is in favor of the war. There are most likely people in both Russia and Belarus that do not support the war that their country is forcing on the other. In this case, it is not fair to those few people who do not support the war. Equality, one of the values of the IPC, talks about equality in regard to people with disabilities are to be treated equally and given the same treatment (International Paralympic Committee, 2014). I believe that the IPC is making the right decision for the majority, but is not fair for those people who do not support the war. I think that they should ban them from the games until both countries are civil with each other and no war happens. I think it is a little bit unfair to remove them once they are civil with one another.
Disabled sports should have the ability to hold events wherever they want since individuals with disabilities are all over the world. Not including the unfortunate events happening in Russia and Belarus, I think that disabled sports should be allowed to host their sport in these two countries since, according to statistics, Russia has 13 million people who live with a disability, or 9% of their population (Russian Federation, 2022) and Belarus has about 570,000 people who live with a disability, or 6% of their population (Veramejchyk, 2022). Despite the issues going on, I think that all 13 million and 570,000 people who have a disability should be given the right to play a sport since most of them could potentially not be in favor or not want to have anything to do with the war going on in their countries. I think that athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus should be able to participate in sports events outside of the country and they should compete individually, rather than for their country at this time until all wounds are mended.
References
Associated Press. (2023, March 30). No quick paralympics decision on Russia, Belarus athletes. AP NEWS. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://apnews.com/article/paralympics-russia-paris-2024-belarus-ad70023fc70118a6e67b9baf9e3ec8d1
IPC makes decisions regarding RPC and NPC Belarus. International Paralympic Committee. (2022, March 2). Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.paralympic.org/press-release/ipc-makes-decisions-regarding-rpc-and-npc-belarus?fbclid=IwAR3zAi5KVUQl0OlWlEkQAczwnTfDUGGpTWr90MeZBaq3wjc1c4RfbXtkjSo
Russian Federation - Disability:in. Disability. (2022, September 7). Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://disabilityin.org/country/russian-federation/
Veramejchyk, G. (2022, March 11). Inclusive cashiers in Belarus – bringing people with disabilities into jobs. TEXT. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.dvv-international.de/en/our-work/stories/detail/inclusive-cashiers-in-belarus
What are the Paralympic values? International Paralympic Committee. (2014, July 28). Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.paralympic.org/feature/what-are-paralympic-values
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