Winter Paralympics 2026: Six Russians and four Belarusians compete under national flags

Six Russian athletes and four Belarusian athletes will compete under their country’s flags at the upcoming Winter Paralympics.

In September, the International Paralympic Committee lifted its ban on athletes from the two countries competing in the Games.

Both countries’ participation in Paralympic competition was suspended following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Belarus being a close ally of Russia. A partial ban – allowing athletes to compete as neutrals – is set to be imposed in 2023.

However, the four governing bodies responsible for the six sports contested at the Paralympics decided to keep the ban in place.

In December, Russia and Belarus won their appeal against the Islamic Ski Front – the governing body for skiing and snowboarding – before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, allowing them to compete and collect classification points.

The IOC confirmed to BBC Sport that the 10 athletes had received bilateral committee invitations to compete in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and snowboarding at the Milan-Cortina Games.

“The IOC can confirm that the Russian NPC has secured a total of six places: two in alpine skiing (one male, one female), two in cross-country skiing (one male, one female), and two in para snowboarding (both male),” she said in a statement.

“NPC Belarus was awarded four places in total, all in cross-country skiing (one male and three female).”

Dual committee invitations are given to individual athletes, rather than their respective international federation, and allow the participation of top athletes “who may not have had the opportunity to qualify through other routes due to exceptional circumstances”, among other factors.

It will be the first time the Russian flag has been flown at the Paralympics since the 2014 Sochi Games, first due to the country’s state-sponsored doping programme, before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Among the athletes scheduled to compete are Alexei Bugaev, a three-time Paralympic champion in alpine skiing, and cross-country skiers Ivan Golubkov and Anastasia Bagyan – both world championship medalists, Russian news agency TASS reported.

All three returned to competition in January, and since then both Bogaev and Bagyan have won World Cup titles.

The Winter Paralympics will be held in Milan-Cortina from March 6 to 15.