Russia stages its own Paralympic Games after Rio ban

Russia is holding its own version of Paralympic games after its athletes were banned from the games in Rio.

The country held its opening ceremony in Moscow parallel to the Paralympic Games in Rio on Wednesday.

“Of course, we regret that everything has gone in such a way and we today we are not taking part in a big sporting celebration, a great festival of sport. We are confident that these problems are temporary. I’m sure that the Paralympic Committee and all the international sports movement will do quick work to get us back into the big Paralympic family,” said Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko.

Last month, the Russian team was excluded in their entirety, by the International Paralympic Committee for the competitions in Brazil after an investigation found that Moscow ran a state-sponsored sports doping program.

Russia had been set to take 267 competitors across 18 sports to the Paralympics.

Reuters