8 countries announce a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Winter Games

Eight countries will boycott the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Winter Games in Milan-Cortina in protest against allowing Russian athletes to participate under their country’s flag for the first time since 2014, organizers said Thursday.

The International Paralympic Committee announced last month that it would allow six Russian and four Belarusian athletes to participate in the Games under the flags of their countries, rather than as neutral athletes.
Russia and Belarus were banned from participating in the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics following the invasion of Ukraine, while their athletes were allowed to participate as neutrals in the Summer Paralympics in Paris two years later.
Following the International Paralympic Committee’s statement, several countries, including Ukraine, announced their boycott of the opening ceremony scheduled for Friday in Verona.
“Over the past 10 days you may have noticed news of some National Paralympic Committees deciding not to participate for political reasons, and there have been reports in varying numbers,” Craig Spence, communications officer for the International Paralympic Committee, said at a press conference in Cortina on Thursday.
“I’ve seen numbers between 7 and 15. So let me be very clear about the National Paralympic Committees that will not be attending for political reasons,” he added.
“We have Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine,” he continued.
Spence confirmed that the International Paralympic Committee “respects this decision” to boycott the ceremony.
Britain joined the boycotting countries after its government announced a boycott of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games in protest against allowing Russian athletes to compete under their country’s flag.
“We strongly oppose the International Paralympic Committee’s decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their respective flags at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games,” a government spokesman said.
“We have made clear that the Russian and Belarusian states should not be represented in international sport while the brutal, large-scale invasion of Ukraine continues,” he added.
“Therefore, no ministers or government officials will attend the opening or closing ceremonies of the Paralympics.”
Since the opening ceremony will be held far from the cities hosting the competitions, which are Cortina, Val di Femme, and Milan, the International Paralympic Committee indicated that other countries will not participate with athletes in the ceremony, but stressed that this is due to its decision to “give priority to sports performance.”
Spence explained, “Canada, Germany and France will not boycott the concert. They have told us that they will not attend for performance reasons.”
With several events, including alpine skiing two days away, many athletes have chosen to stay close to their bases.
Spence added that several countries informed the International Paralympic Committee last year that they would not be able to attend the ceremony at the historic Verona site.
He added: “In November, several countries informed us that they would not be able to attend the opening ceremony because they prefer to focus on sports performance, and the International Paralympic Committee respects that.”
He concluded: “At the end of the day, athletes have been training for this moment for years, and if their priority is performance, we support that.”
The International Paralympic Committee explained that several countries sent 12-second video clips of their athletes, which will be shown during the opening ceremony.