CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Two weeks after the conclusion of the Milan Cortina Olympics, the Winter Paralympics are in Italy — and using some of the same facilities — for their 50th anniversary, with China looking to extend its dominance as a Paralympic powerhouse, and Ukraine and other nations boycotting the opening ceremony over the return of the Russian flag and anthem.
The Games will officially kick off Friday amid the tensions of the war in the Middle East, which prompted travel difficulties for some of the nations coming to Italy because of a widespread flight disruptions. Iran was due to have one skier at the Milan Cortina Paralympics.
Wheelchair curling launched the competition schedule Wednesday, and the sport was quickly hit by another scandal as two rocks were stolen from the Curling Olympic Stadium. During the Olympics, the Canadian men’s team was accused of cheating.
The Winer Paralympics are back in Italy 20 years after the Torino 2006. It will be the 14th edition of the Winter Paralympics since the inaugural edition in 1976 in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden. Nearly 200 athletes competed in two sports at the time. This year, 660 athletes will participate across the six sports in Italy hrough March 15.
The United States has a 72-member squad in Italy, compared to the 67-member roster it took to Beijing for the 2022 Paralympics. This year’s U.S. delegation includes Oksana Masters, the most decorated American in the Winter Paralympics, and 16-year-old Para alpine skier Meg Gustafson.
Russian athletes will compete under their own flag at the Paralympics for the first time in more than a decade, and the country’s national anthem could be played for gold medalists for the first time on the stage of a major global sporting event since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russia’s flag hasn’t been flown at the Paralympics since the country hosted the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, while the national anthem has not been heard at any Olympics or Paralympics since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games in Brazil.
It could be the first time the anthem is played on the stage of any major global sporting event in four years.
Ukraine was the first to announce that it was planning to boycott the opening ceremony because of Russia, and seven other nations were planning not to attend because of political reasons: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Netherlands.
Some other nations are not attending the opening ceremony to rest their athletes ahead of their competitions, not as a boycott.
Germany criticized the International Paralympic Committee’s decision to grant athletes from Russia and Belarus wild cards to participate at Milan Cortina.
“Team Germany Paralympics will not participate in the Parade of Nations during the opening ceremony in Verona. This decision serves both to focus on the upcoming competitions and to respectfully express solidarity with the Ukrainian delegation,” the German team said in a released statement.
Russian athletes and athletes from that country’s close ally, Belarus, were awarded slots by the IPC on Feb. 17.
Russian and Belarussian athletes had been competing as individual neutral athletes without their flag, anthem or team colors. Russian athletes were initially banned because of a state-sponsored doping program, and the sanctions had continued since their country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Ukraine’s sports minister, Matvii Bidnyi, had said in a social media post the nation will “not take part in any other official Paralympic events.”
The IPC said most teams were already in Europe for training, but it was helping out others with travel amid the war in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the Milan Cortina Games will give China the chance to establish itself as the nation to beat in both the Summer Paralympics and the Winter Paralympics.
The Chinese have topped the medal count in the Summer Paralympics every time since 2004, and four years ago led the Winter Games for the first time with a record-setting performance that included 18 gold medals, 20 silver and 23 bronze.
China had more than 90 Paralympians competing in Beijing four years ago, the most ever by any nation, and is sending another large delegation to Italy this time. It will have 70 athletes competing in Italy, making its largest ever overseas delegation.
Norway is the most successful nation in Winter Paralympics, ahead of the U.S. and Austria. China is 14th in the all-time medals table but competed in less than half of the Games in which Norway, the U.S. and Austria participated since the first Winter Paralympics.
China’s push to dominate in the Winter Paralympics got a boost when it was picked to host the Beijing Games, where it won 60 more medals than the single one it had won in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The push continued after the home Games, with government funds still being made available for Paralympic programs and changes being promoted on several fronts, including new laws for people with disabilities to encourage their access to sports.
“China developed hundreds of disability sport instructors and coaches with government funding since they started the investment in Paralympic sports. They trained coaches for mass participation, and they’ve been training coaches for the elite sports,” said NaRi Shin, an assistant professor of sport management at the University of Michigan.
“They have national Para games and regional games within the nation’s boundary, but also had the Olympic Games in 2008 and the Winter Games in 2022, so they have maintained the series of competitions so that these athletes who they trained have the experience of competing at the higher level,” added Shin, who is an expert in sport development and on how East Asian countries have invested in the Olympics and Paralympics.