The Paralympic U-turn on Russian participation in the upcoming Beijing Games isn’t likely to be the end of the story.
The Winter Paralympics are scheduled to open on Friday without Russian and Belarusian athletes. The competitors from those countries were expelled from the event on Thursday because of their governments’ role in the invasion of Ukraine.
The decision to bar them came a day after the International Paralympic Committee had originally decided to allow them to compete as “neutral athletes” with no colours, flags or anthems.
The sudden reversal followed an uproar in Beijing, where athletes and teams from other countries threatened to pull out if Russians and Belarusians competed.
What’s next?
The Russians and Belarusians can appeal against their expulsion, either to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland or to a court in Germany, where the IPC is based.
CAS said Thursday it had not received any appeal. Although it is obliged to handle doping cases from the Paralympics, CAS doesn’t need to be involved in other IPC business.
An urgent legal process on the eve of the Paralympics could be a rerun of the Russian team’s efforts to get back into the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics.
Then, the IPC imposed a blanket ban on the Russian team in fallout from the state-backed doping program that saw many of the country’s athletes excluded at short notice from the Summer Olympics only weeks earlier.
WATCH | Ukrainian athletes call for Russia, Belarus to be banned from Paralympics:
Ukrainian athletes release video calling for Russia, Belarus to be banned from Paralympics
4 days ago
Duration 2:02
‘Global Athlete’ released a video featuring Ukrainian athletes, calling for Russian and Belarusian exclusion from the Beijing 2022 Paralympics after violating the Olympic truce. 2:02
In a flurry of legal hearings, the Russian Paralympic Committee failed to get the rulings it sought at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the Swiss supreme court and the IPC’s local court in Bonn, Germany. All the courts thought a Russian blanket ban was proportionate.
The Bonn court suggested the “special nature” of the Olympics and Paralympics, where athletes compete representing their nation rather than as individuals, meant they had to “accept restrictions that are not their own fault.”
That judgment could go to the heart of the current case — that Russian and Belarusian Paralympians have been penalized for a war for which they have no responsibility or blame.
More recently, German courts got involved in other IPC business. Before the Beijing Paralympics, local courts in Dusseldorf and Cologne overturned IPC rules and forced them to allow two snowboarders to compete.
Re-reversal?
If the Russians and Belarusians win an appeal and get reinstated, the Beijing Paralympics could be in jeopardy.
IPC President Andrew Parsons said Thursday the organization underestimated the negative reaction to originally letting Russians and Belarusians compete — even as neutral athletes. The Latvian curling team, for instance, said it would refuse to play against the Russians in a scheduled group game.
More tumult could ensue if they are allowed back in, possibly causing some athletes or teams to follow up on their threats to withdraw.
The IPC
The International Paralympic Committee is separate from the International Olympic Committee.
Although their events coincide, they maintain different rules and different leadership. However, Parsons is an IOC member and was invited to take part in its executive board meeting on Monday. That led to the IOC urging sports bodies around the world to ban Russians and Belarusians from competitions or let them compete as neutral athletes in special circumstances, like short notice.
The first official Paralympics were held in 1960 in Rome, but under a different name at the time. Other events for disabled athletes preceded that.
The IPC was founded in 1989 and signed an agreement with the IOC in 2001 to ensure the Olympic host city would also stage the ensuing Paralympics.
WATCH | Ukrainian skeleton racer calls on IPC to ban Russian athletes from Paralympics:
Ukrainian Olympian urges IPC to ban Russian, Belarusian athletes from upcoming Paralympics
4 days ago
Duration 9:12
Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, the Olympian who flashed ‘No War in Ukraine’ sign after competing at Beijing 2022, shares his concerns about the Russian invasion and his desire for sanctions against Russia and Belarus. 9:12
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, led the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan vote her first year on the ballot — an important part to possible selection to the hall’s next class.
The organization released the voting results on Friday. American doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan finished second with Canada’s Daniel Nestor third.
The Hall of Fame said tens of thousands of fans from 120 countries cast ballots. Fan voting is one of two steps in the hall’s selection process. The second is an official group of journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers from the sport who vote on the ballot for the hall’s class of 2025.
“I am incredibly grateful to the fans all around the world who supported me during the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan votes,” Sharapova said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to be considered for the Hall of Fame, and having the fans’ support makes it all the more special.”
Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach No. 1 in the world. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. She also won the French Open twice, in 2012 and 2014.
Sharapova was also part of Russia’s championship Fed Cup team in 2008 and won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012.
To make the hall, candidates must receive 75% or higher on combined results of the official voting group and additional percentage from the fan vote. Sharapova will have an additional three percentage points from winning the fan vote.
The Bryans, who won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, will have two additional percentage points and Nestor, who won eight Grand Slam doubles titles, will get one extra percentage point.
The hall’s next class will be announced late next month.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
