What you need to know about the Beijing Paralympics, which start this week

If there was any doubt that Paralympic athletes are tough, surely that’s been put to rest.

Not only do they ski, snowboard, play hockey and curl with physical impairments, they do so in wartime. Peace in Europe holds out for the Olympics but not always for the Paralympics, which start about two weeks after the Olympics end.

Eight years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to capture and occupy the Crimean Peninsula in Southern Ukraine in the days between the Sochi Olympics and Paralympics. This time, he invaded the entire country. Now, with the Beijing Paralympic Winter Games set to open Friday, Russia is intensifying its bombardment of Ukraine’s biggest cities with airstrikes.

Throw in the warmer March weather, which isn’t great for snow conditions, and the general sports fatigue that comes after wall-to-wall coverage of the Olympics and it’s easy to see that Paralympians don’t get to do anything the easy way.

You have questions, no doubt. We have answers.

Will Russia be there?

No, and invasion-supporter Belarus won’t be either. In an about-face, a day after the International Paralympic Committee said it couldn’t legally bar the two nations from competing, it decided to do just that.

On Thursday, IPC president Andrew Parsons said “we are very firm believers that sport and politics should not mix” but “war has now come to these Games.”

“Ensuring the safety and security of athletes is of paramount importance to us and the situation in the athlete villages is escalating and has now become untenable,” he said.

Also worth noting is the flood of athletes and teams that threatened not to compete if Russia and Belarus did. That certainly helped push the IPC from its Wednesday stance, that banning them wasn’t legally possible because “it is currently not a membership obligation for an IPC member to ensure compliance with the Olympic Truce.” Its Thursday stance is that barring the two countries was necessary “in order to preserve the integrity of these Games.”

Previously, the IPC announced that it intends to hold a meeting later this year to discuss requiring nations to comply with the Olympic Truce.

What is this Olympic Truce?

It dates back to the ancient Olympic Games in 776 BC. It called for an end to armed conflict beginning seven days before the Games and ending seven days after to allow athletes and others to travel safely to the Games.

The International Olympic Committee revived the idea in 1992 and negotiated a deal to allow athletes of the former Yugoslavia to participate as independent athletes in the Summer Games in Barcelona.

Starting with the 1994 Lillehammer Games, a United Nations resolution “building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal” has been adopted by the General Assembly prior to every Games. It calls for observance of the Olympic Truce for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

How are the Beijing Paralympics different from the Olympics?

To start with, there’s less of everything: fewer countries (49 delegations compared to 91); fewer athletes (650 to 2,900); and fewer events (78 medal events across six sports to 109 medal events across 15 sports). There are no judged events; everything is a race or a game.

There’s a classification system that groups athletes with similar impairments together, such as standing, sitting and visually impaired classes in skiing. And there is a factoring system that takes into account the severity of a disability and helps level the playing field and determine winners.