Russia’s Paralympic Athletes' Prospects at 2018 Games ‘Bleak’, Official Says

The perspectives of the Russian Paralympic athletes at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, are "bleak" due to McLaren report on alleged doping abuse in Russian sports, the member of the Governing Board of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC), Mikhail Terentiev, said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) independent commission headed by Richard McLaren introduced the second part of the report on alleged Russian doping abuse, revealing manipulations by athletes in 30 sporting disciplines.

"On the basis of this report, the perspectives of our Paralympic movement at the [Olympic] Games in 2018 are very bleak, bearing in mind the position of [President of the International Paralympic Committee] Philip Craven and the IPC authorities. If they believed the first [part of] the report, which included Paralympic sports, then the [second part of the] … report is more detailed. The first part included only one line about the Russian Paralympic athletes, and now [there are] ten," Terentiev said.

The RPC authorities need to do a lot of work and discuss criteria for reestablishing membership of all Russian Paralympic athletes, Terentiev added.

In July, WADA commission presented the first part of the report based on the investigation results, in which Russia was accused of running a state-wide doping program, recommending the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider a blanket ban on the entire Russian team. The IOC instead opted to let individual sports federations decide on the matter.

As a result, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) banned the Russian athletes from taking part in international competitions including the 2016 Summer Olympics. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) later banned all Russian Paralympic athletes from the 2016 Summer Paralympics and the 2018 Winter Games.