What NPA stands for at the Paralympics and the rules athletes are subject to

Around 4,440 Paralympic athletes from 184 nations have gathered in Paris for the 2024 edition of the games.

But for a group of athletes, they are competing in the French capital under the NPA banner, which stands for Neutral Paralympic Athletes.

These are Russian and Belarusian athletes, who have been permitted to take part despite their respective nations having been banned from the Olympics and Paralympics due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The rules NPA athletes are subject to at the Paris 2024 Paralympics

NPA athletes are competing in the Paralympics in neutral uniforms, which do not feature any reference to any national flag, colours, name or symbol.

The athletes are taking part under a white flag which features black lettering spelling out NPA, with the flag to be used on TV graphics and during medal ceremonies.

The Russian and Belarusian flags, along with any symbols related to the two countries, are banned from any venue associated with the event.

Medals won by NPA athletes will not be reflected in the official medal table, and in the event that one of them wins gold, the Paralympic anthem will be played instead.

NPA participants were not included in the march at the Opening Ceremony and and they will not have a flagbearer at the closing ceremony on September 8.

Russia and Belarus have also been prohibited from entering any team sports at the Paralympics.

Those competing under the NPA banner have been subject to background checks by the International Paralympic Committee to ensure they have not endorsed the war, nor that they have any military links.

The same rules applied to Russian and Belarusian athletes at the Olympics, but several athletes, such as Russian tennis star Andrey Rublev who won gold in the tennis doubles at Tokyo 2020, turned down the invitation.

One noticeable difference between the Olympics and Paralympics is that Russian and Belarusian stars are allowed to take part in the athletics over the next week-and-a-half, with their Olympic counterparts banned from qualifying for track events.

Three times more Russian and Belarusian athletes are taking part in the Paralympics than in the Olympics, with 88 involved from Russia and 8 from Belarus.

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