The Russian government is planning a replacement event after excluding its athletes from the Winter Paralympics.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko has instructed the Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Finance to organize the competitions, Russia’s Tass agency reported. The athletes should not be deprived of the sports festival for which they had been preparing for years. The event is to be held in the Russian city of Khanty-Mansiysk.
As with the Paralympics, medals should be distributed and records should be considered official, it said. According to Tschernyschenko, the originally planned bonuses should also be distributed to the medal winners. For a victory there is therefore the equivalent of around 38,000 euros in prize money.
Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from competing shortly before the start of the Paralympics in Beijing because of the invasion of Ukraine. With the decision, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) reacted to the widespread outrage at the athletes’ planned participation. Previously, the IPC wanted athletes from Russia and Belarus to start as neutral athletes under the Paralympic flag.
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