The main leaders of German Olympic and Paralympic sport expressed shock on Wednesday by the decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to admit Russian and Belarusian athletes to the Paralympic Games in Beijing.
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Read alsoParalympic Games: Russian and Belarusian athletes will participate under a neutral banner
"
The fact of not excluding these two delegations is incomprehensible
", exclaimed the president of the German Paralympic Sports Federation Friedhelm-Julius Beucher, regretting that we "
did not have the strength to go beyond the regulations to stand on the side of humanity
".
“
We argue according to rules, while in Ukraine we kill without any rules.
This decision sends a totally bad signal
,” he adds.
His counterpart from the German Olympic Committee, Thomas Weikert, is on the same line: "
In agreement with our Paralympic federation, we believe that the decision of the International Paralympic Committee is wrong
," he said.
Letting the Russians and Belarusians participate by renaming them "
neutral athletes
", "
undermines the intention and the objective of the sanctions
", he believes.
Paralympic Federation chef de mission Karl Quade said from Beijing: "
The most distressing thing for me was hearing the explosion of joy in the Russian pavilion next to ours when Parsons (Andrew Parsons, president of the IPC) announced the decision
”.
“It is incomprehensible that the IPC should make a decision different from that of the majority of the world of sport, regretted Mr. Quade.