Germany’s elite athletes have been vocal and demanded tougher sanctions for Russia. They have demanded a blanket ban in sports for the nation after their ruthless invasion on Ukraine. Now the International Paralympic Committee(IPC) is set to discuss the matter ahead of next week’s Beijing Paralympics. Germany’s Athleten Deutschland recently reckoned that a complete ban of all Russian sports bodies, athletes and officials as well as events in the country was the necessary retort to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“German representatives in national and international federations, along with like-minded officials from other countries, should urgently use their influence to bring about the swift and complete isolation of Russia and Belarus,” it said in a statement.
The Germans have further demanded that the federations should also cut ties with any Russian donor and called on the IOC to soften the financial blow to them.
IPC is set to hold the meeting on March 2
The IPC have announced that it would be discussing Russia at a board meeting on March 2, which is a couple of days before the commencement of the March 4-13 Paralympics.
“Over the next 24 hours the majority of the IPC Governing Board, including the IPC President, are travelling to Beijing for the Paralympic Winter Games,” an IPC official told Reuters. “Therefore, nothing will be decided by the IPC until a meeting can be convened between the Board Members.” The meeting had been scheduled for March 2 in Beijing.
As many as 650 athletes from 49 national paralympic committees, including the Russian will be taking part in the crucial meeting that will decide the fate of Russia in the upcoming sporting events. A plethora of federations and teams have moved events from Russia or have refused to compete there or against Russian teams in the past four days.
Recently, it was also reported that UEFA has moved the Champions League Final from St.Petersburg and it will now be taking place in Paris. The International Olympic Committee urged the international sports federations on Friday to either move or cancel events planned in Russia or Belarus. We will now have to wait and see what IPC decides during the major meeting.
