Azerbaijan declines 3 vacant Rio Paralympics quotas of banned Russians - minister

Azerbaijan's sports authorities do not support the decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to bar Russia from the 2016 Rio Games and would not accept a vacated quota to include three more Azerbaijani Paralympians for the upcoming competition in Brazil, the country's sports minister said on Wednesday.


"Following the information from the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Paralympic Committee decided to ban Russia from the Paralympics in Rio," Azad Rahimov, the Azerbaijani Minister of Youth and Sports, told journalists.


"Over 100 licenses, won by Russian athletes, were distributed to other countries in a way that remained unclear to everyone," he said. "Azerbaijan was granted three licenses as a result, but we did not earn them."


"The Russians appealed the ban in a (Swiss) court," Rahimov said. "How can one start distributing the Russian licenses if there is still no verdict from the court? Until the issue is finally resolved, Azerbaijan would never speak of three possible athletes, who might travel to Rio at the expense of licenses, won by Russia."


The Azerbaijani sports minister also said he believed it was inadmissible to ban Paralympians from the 2016 Games.


"How could one possibly prohibit people with limited physical abilities from taking part in the most important sports event, considering years of their preparations for this event," he emphasized. "As we say in Azerbaijan - this is not a Godly act."


On August 7, the IPC decided to bar the whole Russian Paralympic team from taking part in the 2016 Summer Paralympics. The ruling came on the heels of a report delivered earlier in the summer by the Independent Commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).


The commission, led by Canadian sports law professor Richard McLaren, claimed in particular that a total of 35 doping samples were concealed in the Russian Paralympic sports between 2012 and 2015. However, it turned out later that not all the stated cases of concealed doping samples concerned the Russian Paralympic Committee. Nevertheless, the IPC decided on collectively punishing the Russian national team.


The RPC filed a lawsuit with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on August 15 in Lausanne against the IPC's decision, but eight days later, the Swiss-based court ruled to uphold the ban slapped on the whole Russian Paralympic squad.


Last Friday, the RPC submitted a motion with the Supreme Federal Court of Switzerland appealing the decision made earlier by the CAS.


Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that Russia would organize alternative competitive events for the barred Russian Paralympic team and the awards for Paralympians would be equal to those promised at the 2016 Rio Games.



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