Boycotting the Paralympics is a ridiculous conversation to be having

This post is more a greater than 140 character tweet/rant than a blog post.

The proper research is not being done to warrant it as a regular blog post but I am deeply saddened and angered by calls to boycott the Paralympics, that I feel I have to express it.

To start, there were calls to boycott the Olympics. I wrote my feelings about that issue last summer. You can read it here.

That boycott did not happen and for anyone to actually think a boycott of the Paralympics should happen is absurd.

Yes I understand that the situation is different. Last summer, the anti-gay rights issue was the reason for a call to boycott whereas now it's the Ukraine situation.

I didn't want the Olympics boycotted. I wanted the athletes to attend the Olympic Games and do what they have trained years or decades to do.

Go, compete, have sportsmanship towards your competitors and hopefully receive the same respect back, which includes everyone competing clean and with fair play (with these issues perhaps worthy of a separate post).

I did not want the athletes making political statements that could have potentially caused issues for them with the IOC and in the same vein, I did not want the athletes (in particular the Canadian athletes) welcoming the Russian President into Canada House and take selfies with him. I did not want the politics to enter the equation at all.

The Russian President was welcomed in a way that perhaps gave him more confidence and perhaps made him think that he was supported around the world. Is that a reason that the Ukraine situation is worsening in the past few weeks? I don't know.

All I know (or perhaps a better word is feel) is that the Paralympians should not be the ones to take the brunt of the IOC, the COC or the Olympians' missteps. Paralympians are perhaps the truest amateur athletes in the Olympic world.

Many Olympians are professional athletes, playing in the NHL or competing on the Dew Tour. Many have major sponsors or are part of the Own The Podium program.

Our Paralympians don't have that kind of support although I have been happy to see some of them in commercials on television.

Bottom line...if a boycott should have happened (which I don't believe it should have), then BOTH the Olympians and Paralympians should have been affected. It is ridiculous for this conversation to be happening now.

If the IOC continues to have countries like Russia or China host, who have major human rights issues, then perhaps the Paralympians should go first.

Let the purest form of competition and Olympic spirit go first to ensure that Presidents don't think once the Olympics are over, they can do whatever they want.