Canada disagrees with vote to allow Russians to compete as neutral athletes at 2024 Paralympics

Russians and Belarusians will be allowed to compete as neutral athletes at next year's Paralympics in Paris after avoiding a full ban from the event following the invasion of Ukraine.

The International Paralympic Committee voted 74-65 at an assembly in Bahrain on Friday against suspending Russia's membership entirely — which would have meant a full ban from the Paralympics — but then voted 90-65 in favour of "partially" suspending the country through 2025.

In a statement provided to CBC Sports, Canadian Paralympic Committee president Marc-André Fabien disagreed with the decision, saying his organization supported a full ban of Russia and Belarus.

"We continue to believe this is the right course of action to protect and defend the Paralympic values. As such, we are disappointed in the results of today's vote and that there is not a total ban on membership and participation for Russia and Belarus and their athletes."

Fabien added that the decision is "in solidarity" with Ukraine.

"We believe in the power of sport to unite and make a significant impact in creating a more inclusive and accessible society, and at the centre of this is safety, security, and well-being," he said.

The IPC said Russia's national Paralympic committee was being partially suspended because of "breaches of its constitutional membership obligations."

Later Friday, the IPC said members similarly rejected a full ban for Russia ally Belarus and imposed a partial suspension.

Any Russian delegation in Paris may be reduced in numbers compared to previous Paralympics in part because the country's athletes have already missed a large part of the qualification period. The IPC only governs qualification directly in only some of the sports on the Paris program, including track and field and swimming. Other governing bodies have their own rules on Russian athletes for events which count as Paralympic qualifiers.

Sports bodies which have readmitted Russian athletes have generally required that they compete without the country's flag or other national symbols, and vetted athletes' public statements and social media posts for pro-war messages.

Russia can appeal the ruling to an IPC tribunal. The tribunal overturned an earlier suspension in May. In that case, the tribunal ruled members should have considered more evidence beforehand, according to an IPC summary of the ruling at the time.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus arrived at the Winter Paralympics in Beijing in March 2022, about a week after Russian troops invaded Ukraine. They were excluded a day before the opening ceremony.

The IPC sought to include them as neutral athletes but reversed course after other countries said they would boycott. At the time, IPC president Andrew Parsons cited an "untenable" security situation in the athletes village.

The IPC previously excluded Russia entirely from the 2016 Paralympics because of widespread doping and cover-ups in multiple sports. It allowed Russian athletes to compete without national symbols at the 2018 Winter Paralympics and the most recent Summer Paralympics in Tokyo in 2021.

The International Olympic Committee favours letting Russians and Belarusians compete in international sports events as neutral athletes without national symbols as long as they aren't in the military and haven't publicly supported the war. The IOC says it hasn't made a decision on next year's Paris Olympics.