Russian Para athletes already allowed to compete in some int’l team competitions — Rozhkov

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. A number of international federations supervising Paralympic team competitions have cleared Russia to compete internationally, President of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) Pavel Rozhkov said on Wednesday. "The progress is underway. The federations that supervise [Paralympic] team competitions have begun to allow our teams to participate in their official international competitions. Without a flag, without an anthem, but such a trend is underway," Rozhkov said speaking at a panel session during the "National Health - Prosperity of Russia" forum in Moscow. According to him, the issue of Russia’s participation in the 2028 Summer Paralympic Games in Los Angeles remains complicated. "We are carefully studying the requirements and regulations for admission to the [2028 Summer] Paralympic Games, because in a number of sports there are qualifying groups and in order to get to the Paralympic Games, you need to go through all of them," he noted. Rozhkov cited the team sport of sledge hockey on the winter program as an example: "Sledge hockey is under the auspices of the International Paralympic Committee, they made a decision last year that our athletes will participate, they have a chance to qualify." "However, there may not be such opportunities for a number of sports in the summer program," the RPC president pointed out. On the whole, Rozhkov assessed the current situation with cautious optimism saying "Our athletes will be participating in all competitions whenever it is possible. This is already a certain optimism - the [Russian national] team will be larger [in its representation]." The 21st all-Russia forum "National Health - Prosperity of Russia" is being held in the Russian capital’s downtown area on Wednesday. TASS is the general information partner of the forum.