VERONA /Italy/, March 7. /TASS/. Italian President Sergio Mattarella has declared the XIV Winter Paralympic Games open. The opening ceremony is taking place in Verona.

Participating in the athletes’ parade for the Russian team were skier Anastasia Bagiyan and her guide Sergey Sinyakin, the head of the Russian Paralympic Committee Pavel Rozhkov, and the delegation attach· Ekaterina Pronina. The Russian flag was carried by an Italian volunteer named Anna. As TASS previously reported, the decision for volunteers to carry the countries’ flags at the Paralympics opening ceremony was made because not all flag bearers would be able to attend the event.

2026 Winter Paralympic Games

On January 20, the IPC revised its decision regarding the admission of the Russian national team to the 2026 Paralympics, allowing cross-country skiers, snowboarders, and alpine skiers to apply for invitations. In September 2025, the General Assembly of the International Paralympic Committee fully reinstated the Paralympic Committees of Russia and Belarus.

However, on October 23, 2025, the IPC press office announced that Russians would not be competing at the 2026 Paralympic Games due to the stance taken by certain sports federations. In particular, the Council of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) decided not to allow Russians to participate in international competitions, including the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The RPC later successfully challenged that decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).