{"id":4779,"date":"2026-03-11T19:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=4779"},"modified":"2026-03-30T17:25:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:25:02","slug":"watch-german-athletes-snub-russian-paralympic-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/11\/watch-german-athletes-snub-russian-paralympic-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH German athletes snub Russian Paralympic champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The skiers insist that Russians should not be allowed to compete under their own flag<\/strong><\/p>\n

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is investigating German skiers Linn Kazmaier and Florian Baumann after they turned their backs on Russian gold medalists during a ceremony on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Kazmaier, who is visually impaired, and Baumann, her guide, finished in second place to Russia\u2019s Anastasia Bagiyan and guide Sergey Sinyakin in the women\u2019s sprint race at the Milano Cortina Paralympics. <\/p>\n

Kazmaier and Baumann left their hats on and turned their backs to Bagiyan and Sinyakin as the Russian anthem played on the podium. They then kept their distance from the Russians and refused to join them in posting for a photo with China\u2019s Jihong Cong and Jiaxuan Liu, who finished in third place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Germany, we are aware of the situation, gathering evidence and analyzing it,\u201d<\/em> IPC spokesman Craig Spence said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Speaking to German media, Kazmaier and Baumann insisted that they did nothing wrong. \u201cI don\u2019t know \u2060these people: maybe they don\u2019t support the system in Russia either. Maybe they are really nice people who we could actually be friends with. But it\u2019s such a shame that politics overshadows everything,\u201d<\/em> Kazmaier told German broadcaster ARD.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"Vladislav
Zelensky attacks the Olympics<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This year\u2019s games mark the first time that Russian and Belarusian athletes have been allowed to compete in the Paralympics since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, and the first time that they have competed under their own flags since 2014. <\/p>\n

The IPC\u2019s decision to readmit Russian and Belarusian athletes has angered Ukraine and its supporters. Ukraine and ten other countries, including Germany, boycotted the games\u2019 opening ceremony on Friday in response. <\/p>\n

\u201cI simply do not think it is right that \u2060the IPC has decided that Russia can compete here under its own flag, with its own anthem and with a full band, while the Ukrainians are also here,\u201d<\/em> Baumann told Germany\u2019s ZDF on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Kiev also lashed out at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) during last month\u2019s winter Olympics, after several Ukrainian athletes were ordered to remove clothing and flags bearing political symbols. These included skeleton pilot Vladislav Geraskevich, who was disqualified for refusing to remove a helmet adorned with images of Ukrainian athletes killed during the conflict with Russia. <\/p>\n

Even though Russian athletes competed under a neutral flag and broke no rules at the games, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky insisted that \u201cthey are the ones who deserve disqualification.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s six athletes have so far won four gold medals and two bronze at this year\u2019s Paralympics. Bagiyan has taken two golds, and in a letter to the skier, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised her \u201cstrength of spirit and character,\u201d<\/em> and her \u201cworthy contribution to the development of domestic and world Paralympism.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The skiers insist that Russians should not be allowed to compete under their own flag The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4779"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4783,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions\/4783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}