Absolute meanness

The sports world has gone crazy: now they are trying to trample down the Belarusian Paralympic athletes

The decision not to allow Belarusian and Russian athletes to participate in the Paralympics in Beijing means nothing but absurd allegations. It’s not just injured party who think so. Most other physically challenged  athletes also see this decision as a cynical and impudent attempt to kick us out of the sports festival. Almost everyone. From Canada and France, Italy and Germany. The sports international sympathetically and embarrassedly lowered their eyes, clapping athletes from Russia and Belarus on the shoulder after the verdict announced by the International Paralympic Committee, from which even the battle-scarred scoundrels and villains felt ashamed.

One can only imagine how our and Russian Paralympic athletes felt when, literally a day before the opening ceremony of the Games in Beijing, they were told that they did not get to be here. Although the day before everyone was smiling, shaking hands, there was no escalation, no conflicts, no tension in the Paralympic village. There was a familiar and pleasant atmosphere of friendship and international consolidation between people of the same blood. They all had the same difficult fate, and therefore perfectly understood each other and recognised that the world is often insidious, cruel and extremely unfair. Nikolai Shudeyko, Secretary General of the Paralympic Committee of Belarus, spoke in detail at a special press conference about what and how happened in Beijing and how the ban of Belarus and Russia was decided.

Photo: www.masports.co.uk

This situation could well become the basis for a textbook of meanness — such prevarication and falsehood could be expected from the most notorious scoundrels, but by no means from representatives of the international Paralympic community. In fact, top men, which, alas, could not and did not want to adhere to laws and justice, utterly and completely gave in to their Western masters — they all turned out to be puppets in dexterous and work-weary hands. Nikolai Nikolayevich recalled that the first decision of the International Committee was that the delegations of Russia and Belarus were allowed to participate in the neutral status. It was also meanness, but not a wicked blow. However, this decision was unacceptable for the hilarious bureaucracy, so they pulled the strings: the puppets are so obedient and weak that we ingenuously believe that they can speak. The things were instantly turned around, in spite of all procedures, democratic norms, enshrined rights and laws: Belarusians and Russians were forced to leave the Games. Nikolai Shudeyko says that none of the other athletes, as it was officially announced, was going to boycott the competitions, and even more so, there was and could not be any threat to the competition. All this, like we used to, is a pure lie and provocation. As the famous Bulgakov character would say: ‘Congrats, citizen, you done lied!’
Chairman of the Paralympic Committee of Belarus Oleg Shepel was so outraged, “I have many friends and relatives in Ukraine, I am worried about them and I call them every day to know is everything okay. Nonetheless, this entire situation should not concern sports, especially Paralympic ones, but it became a real disaster. How do physically challenged athletes tie into the current situation? What are they guilty of? Sport has become so involved in politics that there is now much less sport than politics. Yes, time will pass, we will survive, we will calm down, we will find common ground and consensus, but what happened at the 2022 Paralympics defies any logic and has no justification. Neither in human terms, nor in terms of violating all norms and rights. 
Three-time champion of the Paralympic Games in cross-country skiing and biathlon Sviatlana Sakhanenka shared her pain with the mass media. She said that there were no problems in communicating with the Paralympic delegation of Ukraine — everyone greeted each other and smiled. However, later our southern neighbours seemed to have been replaced, and this happened clearly on orders from the top officials: the Ukrainians were forbidden to communicate with our delegation. It was not without provocations from the especially crazy people: they insulted our athletes, especially in social networks, “There is a feeling of misunderstanding and resentment. We were attacked by those who, on the contrary, were supposed to protect us. The International Paralympic Committee gave up its representatives even without a fight. But we have to be strong, and we won’t break.”
Returning from the cancelled Games ahead of schedule, our Paralympic athletes sang Belarusian songs at the Beijing airport. 
Those who naively believe that these guys and girls can be broken are wide-eyed and foolish. Life tried to break them — and could not. They have a character and a big heart. All decisions made and sneak attacks will remain on the conscience of those who made them. According to the law of global justice, these deeds will come back to bite them later.   However, the Belarusian Sports Paralympic delegation takes part in the We Are Together games, which are held from March 16th to 21st in Khanty-Mansiysk. So every Belarusian Paralympic athlete will still get a chance to win the medal. Its significance is unlikely to be lower than the one that was vilely stolen from our athletes.

It was just a slap in the face made by such world sports leaders as the President of the International Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons. Physically challenged athletes, who had been preparing for these competition for four years, did not spend much time with their relatives and friends, and devoted a lot of their effort.


By Sergei Kanashits