Russian athletes will march under their own flag at the Paralympics. Australia isn’t joining the protests

Australia will not join an increasing number of countries boycotting the Winter Paralympic Games opening ceremony in Verona on Friday (Friday night, AEDT) in protest of Russian and Belarusian athletes’ inclusion in the Games, Paralympics Australia has confirmed.

For the first time in more than a decade, Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at a Paralympic Games under their own flag. In 2016, the International Paralympic Committee banned Russian athletes from participating in the Games due to state-sponsored doping.

In 2018, athletes from Russia were allowed to compete as neutral athletes before a separate ban was announced in 2022 on athletes from both Russia and its ally Belarus following the invasion of Ukraine.

In September, the committee voted to lift the bans on both countries, allowing them to return to competition under their flags – and should any of their athletes win a gold medal, their respective national anthems will play. Six athletes from Russia and four from Belarus will compete in the upcoming Games in Milan and Cortina.

In response, Ukraine announced it would not send athletes or officials to the opening ceremony on Friday. They will be joined in some capacity – either by boycotting the parade of nations or refusing to send officials to the ceremony – by Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Finland.

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A spokesperson from Paralympics Australia confirmed that Australian athletes will participate in the opening ceremony and parade of nations as planned, although some will miss the event due to competing the following day.

“Australia will be represented at the Opening Ceremony, but our team will have a reduced presence in attendance due to performance reasons,” a statement said.

Australia was also not part of the mass boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.