Russian Athletes to Compete at Paris Paralympics after IPC Votes Against Full Ban

A view shows the medals of French Paralympic cyclist Marie Patouillet, 35, who wants to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Games, in her apartment in Paris, France, September 5, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
A view shows the medals of French Paralympic cyclist Marie Patouillet, 35, who wants to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Games, in her apartment in Paris, France, September 5, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
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Russian Athletes to Compete at Paris Paralympics after IPC Votes Against Full Ban

A view shows the medals of French Paralympic cyclist Marie Patouillet, 35, who wants to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Games, in her apartment in Paris, France, September 5, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
A view shows the medals of French Paralympic cyclist Marie Patouillet, 35, who wants to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Games, in her apartment in Paris, France, September 5, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

Russian athletes will be able to compete as full participants or neutral athletes at next year's Paris Paralympics after the International Paralympic Committee members voted against a full ban of Russia on Friday.
The decision clears the way for Russians, whose athletes are currently banned from any Paralympic competition, to be in Paris and what the IPC will decide later on Friday is whether they will do so in full national team gear or if they will compete as neutrals, without national emblems, flags or anthem.
"At the IPC General Assembly in Bahrain, IPC members voted 74-65 (13 abstentions) against a motion to fully suspend NPC (National Paralympic Committee) Russia for breaches of its constitutional membership obligations," Reuters quoted IPC as saying.
The decision comes two weeks before the International Olympic Committee session in Mumbai where it will also discuss Russia's and Belarus' participation at the Paris Olympics next year.
The IPC had last year suspended the paralympic committees of both countries and banned their athletes from competing following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Belarus has acted as a staging ground for Russian troops and weapons.
Although an appeal against the suspension of the committees was upheld this year, Russian and Belarusian para-athletes remain banned from competitions to this day.
The IOC has not sanctioned the Russian or Belarus Olympic Committee or Russian members of the IOC. It did ban athletes following last year's invasion of Ukraine, which Russia calls a special military operation.
In March, however, it issued a first set of recommendations for international sports federations to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to return.



‘Flooding Rains’ Threaten to Dampen Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony

Paris 2024 Olympics - Opening Ceremony - Paris, France - July 26, 2024. Spectators are seen behind the Eiffel Tower ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. (Reuters)
Paris 2024 Olympics - Opening Ceremony - Paris, France - July 26, 2024. Spectators are seen behind the Eiffel Tower ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. (Reuters)
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‘Flooding Rains’ Threaten to Dampen Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony

Paris 2024 Olympics - Opening Ceremony - Paris, France - July 26, 2024. Spectators are seen behind the Eiffel Tower ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. (Reuters)
Paris 2024 Olympics - Opening Ceremony - Paris, France - July 26, 2024. Spectators are seen behind the Eiffel Tower ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. (Reuters)

The Paris Olympics look likely to get off to a soggy start.

Meteo-France, the French weather service, is predicting “flooding rains” Friday evening when the opening ceremony is set to unroll along the Seine River. But the show is set to go on as planned, starting at 1:30 p.m. EDT/7:30 p.m. CEST and should last more than three hours.

Already in the late afternoon, skies were gray with intermittent drizzle. There was a silver lining, though, with temperatures expected to stay relatively warm throughout the evening.

Instead of a traditional march into a stadium, about 6,800 athletes will parade on more than 90 boats on the Seine River for 6 kilometers (3.7 miles). Though 10,700 athletes are expected to compete at these Olympics, hundreds of soccer players are based outside Paris, surfers are in Tahiti and many have yet to arrive for their events in the second week, organizers said Thursday.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including 320,000 paying and invited ticket-holders, are expected to line the Seine’s banks as athletes are paraded along the river on boats.