The Ukrainian Paralympic team, made up of twenty athletes and nine guides, will participate in the Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing from 4 to 13 March, as confirmed on Tuesday by the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee through a message on social networks.
The Ukrainian delegation will not travel to China together. Their arrival will take place in several groups, coming from different parts of the country, depending on the possibilities of transport that they may have due to the armed conflict in Ukraine.
Ukrainian athletes will compete in Beijing in two sports: biathlon and cross-country skiing.
Those who have arrived in Beijing are some Russian athletes, although not the 71 who are initially scheduled to participate.
Those who compete will do so under the acronym ROC (Committee Russian Paralympic) due to the two-year sanction since December 2020 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for the doping case of State that uncovered the report by Dr. Richard McLaren.
The pressure on the decision to allow or not the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes is maximum for the International Paralympic Committee, which has received the formal request by part of the Ukrainian delegation and other national committees to prevent their presence in Beijing.
However, the International Paralympic Committee will allow their participation in Beijing 2022.