Paralympics a message of hope

BEIJING • The Beijing Winter Paralympics were officially declared closed yesterday after a controversy-hit Games which banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing over the invasion of Ukraine last month.

Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), declared the event finished and praised its "awesome organisation, vibrant venues and sensational sport" at the closing ceremony in the Chinese capital's "Bird's Nest" stadium.

He also praised the athletes, whom he called "beacons of hope, and champions for peace".

The ceremony, also attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, featured a 55-metre 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 then 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.

"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, the organisers banned them from the Games.

At the opening ceremony, Parsons' forceful anti-war speech was censored on CCTV, China's state broadcaster, in line with Beijing's refusal to condemn the invasion by its close partner Russia.

It was the same again in his closing ceremony as 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 host nation China which emerged as the new Winter Paralympics powerhouse - topping the medals table with 18 golds and 61 medals in all.

Backed by huge investment and aided by the absence of Russian para-athletes, it was a remarkable rise for the Chinese given that they made their Winter Paralympics debut only in 2002 and it was not until Pyeongchang 2018 that they won their first medal, a gold in wheelchair curling.

Parsons hailed China as a "powerhouse" in winter para-sports and Chinese alpine ski coach Dario Capelli agreed, saying the US$1 billion (S$1.36 billion) budget allocated by the country's General Administration of Sport was a huge boost - China also finished third in the medals tally at the Winter Olympics last month.

"For these athletes, every day for 11 months, it was ski training, ski training... I don't know which other country can do this," Italy's Capelli said. "The Chinese mentality is, when they want something, they want the top. They invest a lot of money. That is very important."

After an arduous journey to get to the Chinese capital from their war-torn homeland, Ukraine's athletes finished a remarkable second behind China with 11 golds and 29 medals overall. Canada were third with eight golds and 25 podium finishes.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE