Tomorrow the inaugural ceremony (live on Rai2 from 12.55): Russian and Belarusian athletes allowed as neutral, without anthem or flags
It doesn’t seem like eight years have passed since those days in Sochi in 2014. The tension between Russia and Ukraine was very high, with the beginning of the Russian occupation of Crimea. The Ukrainian delegation, after many hesitations, participated in the Paralympics but only made the flag bearer parade. Putin awaited the conclusion of the event and on March 18 decreed the annexation of the peninsula. Days so distant yet so close. Although a lot changed. Worse.
The horror of war is the backdrop to the Beijing Winter Paralympics which opens tomorrow, Friday 4, in the Bird’s Nest of the Chinese capital (live on Rai2 from 12.55, the first races in the Italian night), the Ukrainian delegation arrived in Beijing, with 20 athletes and 9 guides. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has decided to let Russian and Belarusian athletes compete, but only individually and under the five-circle flag. Their podiums will not enter the medal table and will be framed as Npa: neutral Paralympic athletes. A decision that has created some discussion, even within the Committee but Andrew Parsons, president of IPC, wanted to show that sport must unite, even in such difficult moments: Unlike their respective governments, these athletes are not aggressors, they are here to compete in a sporting event like any other. It is vital to show world leaders through sport that we can unite as human beings and that our real power lies in promoting peace, understanding and inclusion.
Italy is renewed compared to the last edition. Fixed point remains Giacomo Bertagnolli, 23, from Trentino, standard-bearer at the opening ceremony, which starts as a favorite in alpine skiing for athletes with visual impairments. Athlete of the Yellow Flames, led by Andrea Ravelli, former national level skier. At PyeongChang 2018, he won four medals: two gold (giant and slalom), one silver (super-G) and one bronze (downhill). Italy aims to improve the five medals won in South Korea (a bronze in Manuel Pozzerle’s snowboard). In alpine skiing, grown over the years Ren De Silvestro25 years old from Trentino, gold in super combi at the World Championships in the sitting category, that is the athletes sitting on mono-skis, while in cross-country skiing Giuseppe Romele, thirty years old from Brescia born with femoral hypoplasia in both legs, among the top in the world. For the fifth consecutive time, then, the National para ice hockey team qualified, which is played on a sled with blades to slide on the ice and two clubs to push and hit the puck, now one of the international references of the discipline.
The Italian delegation, in total, will be composed of 32 athletes, including three guides for visually impaired athletes, who will be engaged in four disciplines: para ice hockey, alpine skiing, Nordic skiing and snowboarding. There are 12 rookies and there is a return to having female presences in the team, all with visual disabilities, after in South Korea the group had been all male: there will be Martina Vozza, 17 years old (the youngest athlete of the expedition to China, with the guide Ylenia Sabidussi) e Chiara Mazzel (led by Fabrizio Casal, who won medals with Bertagnolli in Pyeongchang). The veteran of the group Santino Stillitanoborn in 1969, goalkeeper of the national team of para ice hockey, reached his fourth Paralympic Games.
March 3, 2022 (change March 3, 2022 | 08:23)
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