Shepel: Political intrigues curbed number of Belarusian athletes at Paralympic Games

There would have been more Belarusian Paralympians in Paris if not for politics. This was stated by the Chairman of the Paralympic Committee of Belarus Oleg Shepel in an interview with the TV channel “First Informational.”

“It was difficult to go there, because all these political intrigues in the International Paralympic Committee affected the situation,” he said, referring to the Paralympic Games in Paris.

Oleg Shepel:

"Thanks to the fact that we won the court of the International Paralympic Committee tribunal, we were reinstated for a while. Between exclusion and reinstatement we had time to hold the Open Championship of Belarus, which was included in the register of international competitions, where licenses were drawn. It was lucky that the swimmers performed at that time and got licenses. Unfortunately, there were not enough starts in other sports where we claimed medals".