MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been barred from participating in the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games in Italy, the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) press office announced to TASS in a statement on Thursday.
"The positions of FIS [International Ski and Snowboard Federation], IBU [the International Biathlon Union] and World Curling currently mean that athletes and teams from Belarus and Russia cannot compete in their events, making it impossible for them to qualify for the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games," the statement cited IPC President Andrew Parsons as saying.
"With the positions of the four International Federations responsible for the six sports on the Paralympic Winter Games program clear, I hope the focus will now be very much on the outstanding athletes and NPCs that will compete at Milano Cortina 2026 next March, as well as the tremendous transformational legacies the Paralympic Winter Games will create," Parsons noted.
The 2026 Winter Paralympic Games are scheduled to run in Italy’s Milano Cortina between March 6 and 15. The event is set mark the 50th anniversary of the Paralympic Winter Games, with the first edition having taken place in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden in 1976.
Regarding the sledge ice hockey qualifiers of the Russian and Belarusian teams for the next year’s tournament, Parsons stated: "While Russia can now compete in Para ice hockey competitions as a result of September’s IPC General Assembly decision, World Para Ice Hockey has confirmed that it is not possible in practice for the nation to qualify for March’s Games."
"Belarus does not currently have a Para ice hockey team competing at the international level," he added.
Late last month, RPC President Pavel Rozhkov announced that the IPC ruled to reinstate the RPC in its rights permitting Russian Paralympians to compete at their full capacity, including under the national flag colors and to the tune of the country’s anthem.
The Paralympic Games are scheduled to follow the 2026 Winter Olympic Games that are planned to be held in Italy, in the cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The Olympic event will take place from February 6-22, 2026.
IOC sanctions against Russia, Belarus
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to prohibit athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended allowing individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in international sports tournaments, but only under specific conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.
On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.