CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The Winter Paralympics come to Milan Cortina to celebrate 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 on 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 Milan Cortina.
Wheelchair curling launched the competition schedule on 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 team was accused of cheating.
The Paralympic Games are back in Italy 20 years after Torino 2006. It will be the 14th edition of the Winter Paralympics since the inaugural edition in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, in 1976. Nearly 200 athletes competed in two sports at the time. Some 660 athletes will participate across the six sports in Italy from Friday through March 15.
The U.S. is sending a 72-member squad to Italy, compared to the 67-member roster it took to Beijing 2022. This year’s delegation includes Oksana Masters, the most decorated American Winter Paralympian, and 16-year-old Para alpine skier Meg Gustafson.
Russian flag returns
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.
The Russian flag hasn’t been flown at the Paralympics since 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.
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, Poland, Lithuania 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 wildcards 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.
Russian athletes and athletes from Russia’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 the 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.
Chinese dominance
The Milan Cortina Games will give China the chance to establish itself as the nation to beat in both the Summer Paralympics and Winter Paralympics.
The Chinese have topped the medal count in the Summer Paralympics every time since 2004, and four years ago won 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 Para athletes competing at its home Games in 2022, 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 United States and Austria. China is 14th in the all-time medal table but competed in less than half of the Games in which Norway, the U.S. and Austria participated since the first Winter Paralympics in Ornskoldsvik.
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 PyeongChang in 2018.
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 do have maintained the series of competitions so that these athletes who they trained have the experience of competing at the higher level,” said Shin, who is an expert in sport development and on how East Asian countries have invested in the Olympics and Paralympics.
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