IPC Vows Turmoil in Ukraine Won't Affect Paralympics

Despite continuing concerns over the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in Crimea, International Paralympics Committee president Sir Philip Craven emphasized that the tenuous situation will not disrupt the success and spirit of the 11th Winter Paralympics, which begin Friday in Sochi.

"I think we have to go about our business and differentiate and continue to differentiate between sport and politics, and that’s something that we can do," said Craven in an interview with Around the Rings at the Main Press Center in Sochi on Wednesday.

"I think our main concern would be if there was any threat to the Paralympic community, and we don’t feel any threat at all," Craven said. "We have the same level of security here as what was at the Olympic Games. We’re feeling very confident from that point of view."

"We’re not ignorant as to what is happening over there," Craven said. "We’re concentrating on what we do, and that’s Paralympic sport."

The IPC president said that it was neither his nor the organization’s place to engage in any diplomacy regarding the conflict.

"We’re definitely apolitical," Craven said. "We do not engage politically; once we do, then we stop being what we are."

"What we will do is liaise with all authorities that can insure that this is the greatest Paralympic sporting spectacle that we can possibly have."

Russian President Vladimir Putin advised that he will attend Friday’s Opening Ceremony. Five-hundred and seventy-five athletes from 45 nations are expected to participate.

During nine days of competition in Sochi and Krasnaya Polyana, athletes will compete in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, ice sledge hockey, wheelchair curling, and, for the first time, para-snowboarding. Seventy-eight medals are at stake in three classifications: standing, sitting, and visually impaired.

The Sochi Winter Paralympics will be the fourth Winter Games that Crane has overseen since he began in his current role in December 2001, prior to the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. He said he believes that these Games have the potential to be the best that he has been associated with.

"I think what we’ve got here is such a well-prepared Paralympic Winter Games," said the 63-year old Craven, who was present for the recently completed Olympic Games.

"Of course, we look toward accessibility for the athletes and spectators and that we've been assured of here in the coastal cluster and in the mountains, where we will have events in Rosa Khutor and Laura," Craven said.

"It’s great to be here with many Russian friends, 45 teams and 575 athletes, so I can’t wait for it to start," Craven said.

Flame Lighting Ceremony in Rosa Khutor

A virtual flame lighting ceremony took place on Wednesday evening in the Rosa Khutor village with IPC president Craven, Sochi 2014 president Dmitry Chernyshenko, and Sochi mayor Anatoly Pakhamov addressing those in attendance, which included numerous IPC board members.

"The relay will unite this country behind its first Paralympic Winter Games," Craven said of the ten-day Paralympic torch relay, while on stage alongside Chernyshenko.

The ceremony virtually combined regional flames from 45 Russian cities, Sochi, and an international leg in Stoke Mandeville, the British town that is considered the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.

"It is the performances of these para-athletes in the coming days that can create a better future for the people with an impairment here in Russia, a country eager to break down barriers and prejudices," Craven said.

The Sochi mayor lit the torch from a cauldron on stage, proceeding to immediately pass the flame to the first torchbearer, who then paraded it around the heart of the Rosa Khutor village, before passing it to the next recipient.

"Today, Sochi is welcoming the most innovative and creative torch relay in the history of the Paralympic Winter Games," said Sochi mayor Pakhamov.

Throughout the evening’s festivities, the Paralympic values of courage, quality, determination, and inspiration were emphasized.

Wednesday marked the eighth day of the ten-day Paralympic torch relay, in which 1,500 torchbearers with disabilities and 4,000 volunteers accompany the flame on its procession through eight federal districts of Russia.

The torch relay will proceed over the next two days through the streets of Sochi before the cauldron is lit at the Paralympics opening ceremony on Friday evening at Fisht Olympic Stadium.

Written by Brian Pinelli

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