Neutral Paralympic Athletes at the 2018 Winter Paralympics

Russia sent people to compete at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. They competed as "Neutral Paralympic Athletes" in 5 sports. Only Russian sportspeople that had not participated in doping were allowed to compete. On 26 February 2018, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said which people from Russia could compete as Neutral Paralympic Athletes at the 2018 Winter Paralympics. The list included 30 people. They were going to compete in para-alpine skiing, para-Nordic skiing, para-snowboarding and wheelchair curling.

Ekaterina Rumyantseva won gold and  Anna Milenina won silver in the women's 6 km biathlon standing race. In the women's 6 km biathlon visually impaired race,  Mikhalina Lysova won gold.  The medals were won on 10 March, the first day of para-Nordic skiing competition at the 2018 Games.

Team

On 26 February 2018, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said which people from Russia could compete as Neutral Paralympic Athletes at the 2018 Winter Paralympics. The list included 30 people. They were going to compete in para-alpine skiing, para-Nordic skiing, para-snowboarding and wheelchair curling. 10 people are competing in para-alpine skiing, 12 in para-Nordic skiing, 3 in para-snowboarding and 5 in wheelchair curling.  The team also includes 6 guide skiers.  There are also going to be 39 support people and officials. Despite limitations on who can compete because of the doping scandal, Neutral Paralympic Athletes from Russia will be one of the largest delegations at the Games.

Alexy Bugaev at a ski competition in 2013.

Mikhalina Lysova.

Anna Burmistrova at the 2010 Winter Paralympics

The table below contains the list of members of people (called "Team NPA") that will be participating in the 2018 Games.

Team NPA

Name	Sport	Gender	Classification	Events	ref
Akzhana Abdikarimova	para-Nordic skiing	female
German Agranovskii	para-alpine skiing	male	guide skier
Sergey Alexandrov	para-alpine skiing	male
Alexandr Alyabyev	para-alpine skiing	male
Natalia Bratiuk	para-Nordic skiing	female
Alexey Bugaev	para-alpine skiing	male
Nadezhda Fedorova	para-Nordic skiing	female
Ivan Frantcev	para-alpine skiing	male
Aleksandra Frantseva	para-alpine skiing	female
Marina Galitsyna	para-Nordic skiing	female
Evgeny Geroev	para-alpine skiing	male
Irina Guliaeva	para-Nordic skiing	female
Vladimir Igushkin	para-snowboarding	male
Maria Iovleva	para-Nordic skiing	female
Anastasia Khorosheva	para-alpine skiing	female
Natalia Kocherova	para-Nordic skiing	female
Konstantin Kurokhtin	wheelchair curling	male
Andrey Meshcheryakov	wheelchair curling	male
Iuliia Mikheeva	para-Nordic skiing	female
Alexey Mikushin	para-alpine skiing	male
Anna Milenina	para-Nordic skiing	female
Ekaterina Moshkovskaia	para-Nordic skiing	female
Artem Norin	para-Nordic skiing	male	guide skier
Mariya Papulova	para-alpine skiing	female
Maksim Pirogov	para-Nordic skiing	male	guide skier
Semen Pliaskin	para-alpine skiing	male	guide skier
Valery Redkozubov	para-alpine skiing	male
Marat Romanov	wheelchair curling	male
Ekaterina Rumyantseva	para-Nordic skiing	female
Daria Shchukina	wheelchair curling	female
Alexander Shevchenko	wheelchair curling	male
Mikhail Slinkin	para-snowboarding	male
Aleksandr Tsygankov	para-snowboarding	male
Alexander Vetrov	para-alpine skiing	male
Marta Zaynullina	para-Nordic skiing	female

The following is the list of number of competitors that could participate at the Games per sport/discipline.

Sport	Men	Women	Total
Alpine skiing	6	3	9
Biathlon Cross-country skiing	0	13	13
Snowboarding	3	0	3
Wheelchair curling	4	1	5
Total	13	17	30

Doping scandal

Neutral flag of the Paralympics.

After the 2014 Winter Paralympics, the McLaren report said 35 people from Russia had done doping during the Games in Sochi. A decision had been made by mid-2016 that Russia would not be able to compete under the Russian flag at the 2018 Games. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) set conditions for Russia's membership in November 2016. The McLaren Report, printed in December 2016, said more than 1,000 Olympic and Paralympic people had been involved with Russia's government sponsored doping program.

In early January 2017, the Russians asked the ban be removed. They wanted to be able to participate in specific qualifying competitions. In April 2017, a proposal was made to allow Russians to compete using a neutral flag. This was rejected. The IPC explained that people could only use a neutral flag if they were refugees or had no National Paralympic Committee.

In May 2017, the IPC said the Russians had until September 2017 to meet all the conditions if they wanted to go to the Winter Paralympics. If they did not meet the conditions, the Russians probably would not be able to go.

15 National Paralympic Committees and the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation signed a letter expressing support for the National Paralympic Committee of Russia in August 2017.  The countries included Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Laos, Moldova, Mongolia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Montenegro, and South Korea.  They asked the IPC Governing Board to consider letting Russia compete at the 2018 Winter Paralympics.  The letter was signed weeks before the IPC Governing Board met in Abu Dhabi. In September 2017, this decision was reviewed and upheld. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) still had concerns about doping in Russian sport. All the conditions the IPC required of the Russians were not met.

In October 2017, Russians were allowed to compete in qualifying as Neutral Paralympic Athletes. They were allowed to do this in alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing and snowboarding. A decision was not made in October about their participation at the 2018 Games.

Because the IPC thought Russia had a doping program run by the government, Russian people were stopped from going to the Games with the Russian flag at the 2018 Games. Some Russian people competed as "Neutral Paralympic Athletes" if the IPC thought they were had not done doping. Because of this, Russians were allowed to compete in 5 sports: para-alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, snowboarding and wheelchair curling. Russians were allowed to compete because the IPC thought their National Paralympic Committee had met some of the conditions the IPC had demanded of them. More improvements were still needed though before they could compete at the Paralympics as Russia. Russia's Paralympians currently face more difficult conditions than those of Russia's Olympians. The Government of Russia has said the allegations about doping are not true. They blame the United States, saying it is a conspiracy to make sure they cannot compete. Vladmir Putin said the United States was doing this to try to prevent him from winning the election for President of Russia.

All eligible people from Russia would need additional testing for use of banned substances. The testing would be more than people from other countries would have to do. As of 29 January 2018, the IPC said 30 to 35 Russian sportspeople might be able to go to the Games the way to decide who was going was still taking place. The last date to win a spot at the 2018 Paralympics was 23 February.

The situation mirrors what happened at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, where Russian sportspeople were not allowed to compete using the flag of Russia.

Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
1 Gold	Ekaterina Rumyantseva	Biathlon	Women's 6 km, standing	10 March
1 Gold	Mikhalina Lysova Guide: Alexey Ivanov	Biathlon	Women's 6 km, visually impaired	10 March
2 Silver	Anna Milenina	Biathlon	Women's 6 km, standing	10 March

Medals by sport
Sport				Total
Biathlon	2	1	0	3
Total	2	1	0	3

Medals by date
Day	Date				Total
Day 1	10 March	2	1	0	3
Day 2	11 March	0	0	0	0
Day 3	12 March	0	0	0	0
Day 4	13 March	0	0	0	0
Day 5	14 March	0	0	0	0
Day 6	15 March	0	0	0	0
Day 7	16 March	0	0	0	0
Day 8	17 March	0	0	0	0
Day 9	18 March	0	0	0	0
Total		2	1	0	3

Alpine skiing

Qualification

On 28 January 2018, it looked like 14 skiers from Russia could go to South Korea.

Schedule

The first event on the para-alpine program was the downhill. It starts on 10 March, running from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. The second event on the program was Super-G. All skiers raced between 9:30 AM and 1:00 PM on 11 March. The super combined takes place on 13 March. The Super-G part of the event is in the morning. The slalom part is in the afternoon. The slalom event gets underway on 14 March and conclude on 15 March. Women and men both race during the same sessions in the morning. The afternoon sessions start with the women doing their second run. Then the men go.The last para-alpine skiing race of the 2018 Games is the giant slalom. It takes place on 17 - 18 March.  Men and women both race at the same time in the morning sessions.  Women race first in the afternoon sessions, with the men racing a half hour after they end.

Results

Men

Athlete	Class	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Total
			Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Alexander Alyabyev	LW6/8-2	Downhill, standing|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:30.41	11
		Super-G, standing|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:31.83	19
Alexey Bugaev	LW6/8-2	Downhill, standing|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:28.68	7
		Super-G, standing|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:28.47	5
Ivan Frantsev Guide: German Agranovskii	B2	Downhill, visually impaired|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:30.72	5
		Super-G, visually impaired|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:29.30	5
Alexey Mikushin	LW6/8-1	Downhill, standing|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:35.67	23
		Super-G, standing|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:34.76	26
Valery Redkozubov Guide: Evgeny Geroev	B2	Super-G, visually impaired|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:31.26	6

Women

Athlete	Class	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Total
			Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Maria Papulova	LW6/8-2	Downhill, standing|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:36.12	5
		Super-G, standing|colspan=4data-sort-value="" style="background: #ececec; color: #2C2C2C; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | —	1:37.11	5

Nordic skiing

Qualification

On 28 January 2018, it looked like 6 women and 10 men from Russia could go to South Korea. One Russian woman in her early 30s said she intended to compete in Pyeongchang. Vladimir Kiselev said he was not allowed to compete in South Korea. He said he had also been stopped from going to the 2016 Summer Paralympics.

Schedule

On 12 March, the 15 km race takes place, with standing and vision impaired women starting at 10:00 PM. Thee sprint classic qualification takes place on 14 March from 10:00 AM – 11:25 AM for both men and women in all classes. It is followed in the afternoon by the semifinals and finals.  The classic race takes place on 17 March. The standing and visually impaired women's race takes place from 10:00 AM - 12:30.

Results

Biathlon

In the women's 6 km biathlon standing race,  Ekaterina Rumyantseva won gold, Anna Milenina won silver, and Liudmyla Liashenko of Ukraine won bronze. In the women's 6 km biathlon visually impaired race,  Mikhalina Lysova won gold,  Oksana Shyshkova of Ukraine won silver and Sviatlana Sakhanenka of Belarus won bronze.

Women

Athlete	Class	Events	Final
			Real Time	Calculated Time	Misses	Rank
Akzhana Abdikarimova	LW10.5	6 km, sitting	28:34.1	25:42.7	2 (1+1)	11
Natalia Bratiuk	LW8	6 km, standing	20:50.6	20:00.6	1 (1+0)	11
Nadezda Fedorova	LW12	6 km, sitting	24:54.4	24:54.4	5 (2+3)	10
Marina Galitsyna Guide: Maksim Pirogov	B1	6 km, visually impaired	24:12.1	21:17.8	3 (1+2)	5
Irina Gulyayeva	LW12	6 km, sitting	22:22.4	22:22.4	1 (1+0)	4
Natalia Kocherova	LW12	6 km, sitting	22:41.1	22:41.1	0 (0+0)	5
Mikhalina LysovaGuide: Alexey Ivanov	B2	6 km, visually impaired	18:59.7	18:48.3	0 (0+0)
Yuliya Mikheeva	LW8	6 km, standing	22:49.0	21:54.2	2 (1+1)	14
Anna Milenina	LW8	6 km, standing	18:05.2	17:21.8	0 (0+0)
Ekaterina Moshkovskaya Guide: Artem Norin	B2	6 km, visually impaired	24:39.0	24:24.2	4 (2+2)	8
Ekaterina Rumyantseva	LW5/7	6 km, standing	19:26.0	17:06.1	1 (0+1)
Marta Zaynullina	LW12	6 km, sitting	23:12.0	23:12.0	1 (0+1)	7

Cross country skiing

Women

Distance

Athlete	Class	Event	Final
			Real Time	Calculated Time	Deficit	Rank
Akzhana Abdikarimova	LW10.5	12 km sitting	51:36.4	46:26.8	+8:10.9	16
Nadezda Fedorova	LW12	12 km sitting	39:46.5	39:46.5	+1:30.6	5
Irina Gulyayeva	LW12	12 km sitting	40:20.6	40:20.6	+2:04.7	6
Maria Iovleva	LW12	12 km sitting	40:54.7	40:54.7	+2:38.8	7
Marta Zaynullina	LW12	12 km sitting	39:09.0	39:09.0	+53.1	4

Snowboarding

Qualification

On 28 January 2018, it looked like 10 women and 7 men from Russia could go to South Korea.

Schedule and results

The snowboard cross event starts on 12 March, running from 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM for all classes for both men and women. The slalom race is scheduled to take place on 16 March, going from 10:30 AM – 4:55 PM for men and women in all classes.

Wheelchair curling

The wheelchair curling competition starts on 10 March. Russia plays against Sweden on 15 March.

Team	Group stage												Tiebreaker	Semifinal	Final / BM
	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Konstantin KurohktinAndrei Meshcheriakov Marat Romanov Daria Shchukina Alexander Shevchenko	GER L 4–9	KOR L 5–6	FIN W 12–5	NOR	USA	SVK	GBR	CAN	CHN	SUI	SWE