Ihar Boki is now the most successful gold seeker at the Paralympic Games. In two days, in the pool at the Paris La Défense Arena, the Belarusian swimmer has just added two gold medals to his collection that began at the London Games in 2012. With 18 titles to his name, he is one more than Swedish para-sailor Jonas Jacobsson (between 1980 and 2012) and Canadian swimmer Michael Edgson (between 1984 and 1992). And his harvest should certainly be enriched at the end of the other three events on his menu (400m freestyle, 50m freestyle and 200m medley).
On Friday 30 August, no one could shake the three-time Paralympic champion in the 100m backstroke (S13 category, reserved for visually impaired people): Boki touched the wall (56.60) ahead of the Russian Vladimir Sotnikov (57.95) and Alex Portal (59:08). The day before, in the 100m butterfly, the 22-year-old Frenchman was close to overtaking the “Belarusian Phelps”, but the gold slipped through his fingers on the touchline.
For more than a decade, the 1.90m swimmer has reigned in his category, a versatile swimmer in all four styles. In his country, “the torpedo from Bobruisk”, one of his nicknames, is awarded the Order of Merit to the Fatherland and even has a stamp with his image.
But since Thursday, Ihar Boki has not been allowed to hear her national anthem or see the green and red flag of Belarus raised when she steps onto the podium. Instead, the public sees a white flag with the initials AIN written on it for “neutral individual athlete” raised while the Paralympic anthem is played. “Of course, it’s a little sad not to see your flag, He evacuated the athlete on Friday evening, dressed in a neutral lilac tracksuit. But everyone knows us, everyone supports us. » His victories are not counted in the medal table either.
96 Russian and Belarusian athletes at the Games
Officially, the Belarusian does not represent his country in Paris. Russia and its Belarusian ally have not received a formal invitation to the Olympics and Paralympics since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In September 2023, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decided to partially suspend the Russian and Belarusian committees for two years, but to authorise their athletes to compete in Paris individually and under a neutral flag, provided they are eligible, and to qualify. Like the able-bodied athletes, they had to answer an investigation to prove that they had never actively supported the war in Ukraine and were not under contract to military or national security agencies.
You have 41.01% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
