TESERO /Italy/, March 10. /TASS/. Russian cross-country skier Anastasia Bagiyan has won gold at the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games in Italy in women’s sprint race in the NS1 category (vision impaired).

The Russian Paralympian with her guide Sergey Sinyakin raced the distance in 3 minutes 16.1 seconds to win the gold. Germany’s Maria Leonie Walter took silver (+8.6 seconds) and her compatriot Linn Kazmaier won the bronze (+9.2 seconds).

This is Russia’s second gold medal at the 2026 Winter Paralympics in addition to two previously won bronze medals.

Russian female alpine country skier Varvara Voronchikhina previously won one gold and one bronze in women’s super giant and downhill events respectively and alpine skier Alexey Bugayev took the bronze in men’s downhill.

The Russian team is currently 10th place in the overall medals standings with two gold and two bronze medals. The top three are currently China (nine gold, six silver and eight bronze), followed in the 2nd place by Austria (4-1-3) and the United States rounding up the trio (3-5-2).

The 2026 Winter Paralympic Games are held in Italy on March 6-15. The Russian Paralympians were allowed to compete at the upcoming Winter Paralympics under the national flag and to the tune of the country’s anthem for the first time in the 12-year period due to previously imposed sanctions.

President of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) Pavel Rozhkov told TASS in February that six Russian Para athletes had received bipartite invitations to the 2026 Winter Paralympics.

The invitations were extended to three-time Paralympic Champion in alpine skiing Alexey Bugaev, two-time World Champion in alpine skiing Varvara Voronchikhina, multiple World Champion in para cross-country skiing Ivan Golubkov, World Championship medalist in para cross-country skiing Anastasia Bagiyan and her guide Sergey Sinyakin, and para snowboarders Dmitry Fadeyev and Philipp Shebbo Monzer.