BEIJING (AFP) — The
Beijing Winter Paralympics
were officially declared closed on Sunday, after a controversy-hit Games which
banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing over the invasion of
Ukraine.
اضافة اعلان
Andrew Parsons, president of the
International Paralympic Committee (IPC), declared the event finished and praised its
“awesome organization, vibrant venues, and sensational sport” at the closing
ceremony in the Chinese capital’s “Bird’s Nest” stadium.
He also praised the athletes, who he called “beacons
of hope, and champions for peace”.
The ceremony, also attended by Chinese President
Xi Jinping, featured a 55m Beijing 2022 logo in the form of a vinyl record player
turntable, rotating underneath a shining snowflake.
After opening music from four harp players, athletes
paraded through the stadium to applause alongside dancing volunteers in
snowflake-adorned blue and white outfits.
The Paralympic flag was lowered and handed over to Italy’s
Milano-Cortina, which will stage the 2026 Winter Games, before a drum
performance took place to close the ceremony.
“In the Paralympic Villages there were different
nations, different views, different abilities. Differences here did not divide
us. They united us,” Parsons said in his speech.
“Through this unity we have hope. Hopes for
inclusion, hopes for harmony, and importantly hopes for peace.”
The lead-up to the Games was overshadowed by
controversy over whether athletes from Russia and ally
Belarus should be
allowed to compete.
The IPC initially said it would allow the athletes
to compete as neutrals, but after threats of boycotts from other competitors
and tensions rising in the athletes’ village, organizers banned them from the
Games.
At the opening ceremony, Parsons’ forceful anti-war
speech was censored on Chinese state TV, as
Beijing refuses to condemn the
invasion by its close partner Russia.
And in the closing ceremony, not all of his speech
was translated into Chinese for the domestic audience, with phrases including
“champions for peace” and “hopes for peace” omitted.
It was the host nation China who emerged as the new
Winter Paralympics powerhouse — topping the medals table with 18 golds and 61
medals in all.
After an arduous journey to get to the Chinese capital from
their war-torn homeland, Ukraine’s athletes finished a remarkable second in the
medals table behind China.
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