None of the 20 athletes from the Ukrainian Paralympic team arrived in Beijing with the opening of the Games at the end of the week, the International Paralympic Committee said on Monday.
IPC spokesman Craig Spence, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he expected the athletes to arrive in China for Friday’s opening rite, despite complicated logistics.
He declined to reveal the team’s whereabouts, citing security considerations and russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We are in normal talks with Ukraine about their participation in the Games, and we are working hard to bring them here,” Spence said.
He said there were no flights from Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. In addition, flights entering China for the Paralympic Games, as well as for the recently concluded Olympic Games, may come from some designated central airports.
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It’s part of China’s tough “closed-loop system” for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which limits athletes and journalists to designated hotels, venues and a designated media outlet with no contact with Beijing and its 20 million inhabitants.
“For various reasons, we don’t verify their location or provide quick updates,” Spence said. “The physical condition and well-being of the delegation is our number one priority. The less we say about where they are, the better. “
Spence said some non-athletes from the Ukrainian delegation there.
He said some of the 71 Russian athletes had arrived, but he didn’t know exactly how many.
Around 650 athletes from 49 Ukrainian delegations are expected to compete in the Paralympic Games, which begin on Friday and end on March 13.
The Beijing Winter Olympics attracted 2,900 athletes from the delegations and closed on February 20.
Ukrainian athletes and have sent an open letter to Olympic and Paralympic leaders, asking them to suspend the Olympic and Paralympic committees of Russia and Belarus.
Spence said the IPC board, which has no Russian or Ukrainian members, will meet on Wednesday to discuss this and other issues. From now on, Russian athletes are expected to compete.
Russia will constitute, however, the Russian Paralympic Committee.
Russian athletes at the Winter Olympics competed on behalf of the Russian Olympic Committee, a consequence of a state-sponsored doping scandal, and a cover-up, dating back to the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
In theory, it is conceivable that some Paralympic athletes will refuse to compete in opposition to their peers on the Russian team. Spence said issues like this could arise at Wednesday’s board meeting.
“We are aware of the discussions that are being taken and the criticism from everyone,” he said. “Obviously we’d like to be in the game right now, but right now that’s not the goal. “
The IPC and IOC condemned Russia’s violation of the Olympic Truce ahead of the Beijing Paralympic Games. But since the outbreak of war last week, neither the IOC nor the IPC have taken direct action against Russia.