‘’Paralympic athletes suspended from the Games because they are Russians"

The vice-president of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC), Pavel Rozhkov, said that the Russian Paralympic team still has chances to perform in Rio de Janeiro. The RPC is not going to give up after the rejection of the appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) – the lawyers will defend until the end the innocent athletes suspended from the Paralympics. Tomorrow it will be known what specific steps the lawyers will take. In Moscow the decision to remove the Russian athletes from international competitions is considered to be a political one.

The athletes themselves regard their removal from the Olympics and Paralympics very acutely. The current head of the Russian Wrestling Federation, Mikheil Mamiashvili, shared his experience of non-participation in the Olympics in 1984 in Los Angeles. Because of the US boycott of the previous Olympic Games in 1980, held in Moscow, the Soviet Union and most of the socialist countries decided not to go to Los Angeles.

"In 1984 I was a member of the team. I was not quite 20 years old – quite young, full of ambition, the then current world champion, the champion of the Soviet Union, the Games of the Peoples of the USSR. I remember Kislovodsk, the penultimate training camp, the arrival of the Minister of Sports, the message about the decision of the party and the government... And we were preparing, were dreaming of participating! There were brilliant athletes, multiple world champions, but not yet Olympic champions in the team – [Greco-Roman style wrestler] Benur Pashayan, [the current deputy head of the Georgian Wrestling Federation] Temur Kazarashvili, [one of the coaches of the current Georgian team in Greco-Roman wrestling] Teimuraz Abkhazava,’’ Mamiashvili said.

According to him, the athletes then had the ‘ghastliest disappointment and frustration’, but there was a clear ‘political motive’. "I was not guided by communist or socialist ideology, but I understood why my country had taken such a decision. And we shared that decision together with our country. But today it is a totally different story. You cannot come up with a greater cynicism than was shown in relation to the Russian Paralympic team. God will punish the people who made this decision [to dismiss the Russian Paralympic athletes from the Games]. They were not allowed just because we are Russians. We cannot be forgiven for rising from our knees, that we think in other categories today. They cannot forgive our successful and historical milestones, which Russia has been passing for the last decade, including major international competitions, hosted brilliantly, the absolutely stunning Olympic Games,’’ the head of the Wrestling Federation said.

According to him, the Paralympians are ‘courageous people’, against whom an ‘inhumane act was carried out’. "If they found the strength to overcome all, if they did not give up, then they will get through it as well, they will train. The podium, medals, tears of joy are still waiting for them. I want to wish them patience and courage. We are with them. Let hope never leave them. They are real heroes.’’