Latvia is a vociferous voice against Russia and Belarus participating in international sports due to their illegal war in Ukraine. The country claims it has gained permission to host an Extraordinary General Assembly to block Russia and Belarus from competing in the European Paralympic Championships. The meeting is also to discuss the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) recent decision to permit Russia and Belarus to compete.

The IPC General Assembly in Manam, Bahrain in September saw a vote to partially suspend Russia and Belarus’ National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) for failing to fulfil membership obligations.

IPC President Andrew Parsons requested all members to respect the General Assembly’s decision. However, at least 10 other countries support the EPC’s Extraordinary General Assembly.

Expect there to be some fireworks between the IPC and EPC and Latvia’s National Paralympic Committee.

“Although it might seem that Latvia is a small country, in the world Paralympic sports arena Latvia could be ranked among the great countries – not only in terms of the high success achieved by our Para athletes but also in matters of support for Ukraine,” Said Latvian Paralympic Committee President Daiga Dadzīte. 

“Thanks to the initiative of the Latvian Paralympic Committee, which was joined by 13 other European countries at our request, the European Paralympic Committee decided to organize an Extraordinary General Assembly.

“We proposed Latvia as a potential candidate country for hosting this Assembly, and our proposal received support not only from the European umbrella organization itself but also from other European colleagues.”

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