TESERO /Italy/, March 11. /TASS/. Russian cross-country skier Anastasia Bagiyan has won gold at the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games in Italy in women’s 10-km race in the NS1 category (vision impaired).
The Russian Paralympian accompanied by her guide Sergey Sinyakin raced the distance in 29 minutes 39.7 seconds to win the gold. Simona Bubenickova from the Czech Republic took the silver (+2 minutes and 19.4 seconds) and Germany’s Maria Leonie Walter won the bronze (+5 minutes 51.1 seconds).
This is Russia’s fourth gold medal at the 2026 Winter Paralympics in addition to two previously won bronze medals.
The Russian team is currently in the 4th place in the overall medals standings with four gold and two bronze medals. The top three are currently China (nine gold, seven silver and nine bronze), followed in the 2nd place by the United States (6-5-3) and Austria rounding up the trio (4-1-3).
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.