The Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) has named its 300-person delegation for 2024 Paris Olympic Paralympics as part of the Olympic Games just in case the country will be permitted to participate.

RPC President Pavel Rozhkov told TASS state news agency that it has selected a team for Paris 2024. Oddly, no names were mentioned. However, Rozhkov did reveal that no teams have been included in the delegation. Shades of Tokyo when a bigger delegation went despite a doping ban at the time.

TASS reported that 40 athletes were selected from a qualifying swim meet in Dzerzhinsk, Russia. Forty more track and field athletes will be selected based on the results of the Russian summer Paralympics tournament in the Chuvashia Region.

“We sent an application with our forecast, taking into account all the criteria that are now in place,” Rozhkov said.

“The preliminary composition of the delegation was almost 300 people.

“We did not include representatives of team sports, for example, wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, rugby on wheelchairs, as well as team disciplines in swimming and athletics, boccia and other sports.”

Russian Para-athletes had been set to take part in the Beijing Paralympics in 2022 until the IPC decided to suspend their participation due to Russia’s involvement in the ongoing developments in Ukraine.

It was on November 16, 2022, that the IPC Extraordinary General Assembly gathered to vote to suspend the Russian Paralympic Committee’s membership. The RPC filed a motion on December 26, 2022, contesting the ruling to indefinitely suspend Russian Para-athletes from competing in international tournaments.

The IPC continues to not want to have Russia participate due to both systematic doping as well as the illegal war in Ukraine. Russia’s neutral team of Para athletes brought home a total of 24 medals from PyeongChang, China including eight gold, 10 silver and six bronze. As a team, it finished second in the overall medal count at the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympics, after the national team of the United States.

Shoestrings

Lord Sebastian Coe will run unopposed for the position of president of World Athletics. He enters his final term in the role. Sergey Bubka, who was considered his primary rival is stepping down after nearly 22 years. Bubka is a Ukrainian-born pole vaulter who competed for the Soviet Union until 1991. He then competed for Ukraine.

From 2002 to 2006 Bubka was a member of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada with the Party of Regions group and until 2014 as an advisor to Viktor Yanukovych, former president of Ukraine.

On March 5, 2022, after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he declared, “Ukraine will win.”

Former Ethiopian (now Dutch) athlete Sifan Hassan will triple at the World Championships. She will take in the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m events. She will attempt a three-gold performance. The 30-year-old picked up bronze in the 1500m, and gold each in the 5000m and 10,000m, when she competed in the 2020 (2021) Tokyo Olympic Games.

“I now have much less stress than at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. It was new there. It is much easier for me now. I now know how hard it is. I know how to do it,” said Hassan.