The spirit of achievement has been rekindled on Italian soil. This Friday, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, officially declared the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games open.
The ceremony, held in the historic Arena of Verona, marked the start of the most ambitious and most participatory edition in the history of adapted winter sports.
Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Games kick off
🇮🇹 🇷🇺 Cerimonia di apertura dei Giochi Paralimpici in Italia: per la prima volta dal 2014, gli atleti russi sono scesi in piazza con la bandiera nazionale pic.twitter.com/vCJSeV0dNh
– Lukyluke31 (@Lukyluke311) March 6, 2026
The President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, declared this Friday, March 6, the Milan Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games officially open, during the opening ceremony held at the Arena of Verona.
“I declare the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games open,” said the president, as he did at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on February 6.
They will be the most numerous in history both in terms of participating countries, 56, and the number of athletes, 612, including eight Spaniards.
Figures that far exceed the 564 representatives from 49 nations from PyeongChang (South Korea) 2018, the edition that held the record until now.
In Örnsköldsvik (Sweden) in 1976, the first Paralympic winter edition, 198 skiers from 16 teams participated.
For the Hispanic representation, Spain arrives with a delegation of eight athletes ready to look for the podium in the mountains of Cortina d’Ampezzo and the venues of Milan.
Over the next few days, the world will witness how these athletes challenge the limits in the disciplines of alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice hockey and snowboarding.
Milan Cortina 2026 will also see the debut of five countries, including El Salvador, which has never competed in an Olympic or Paralympic Winter Games.
The delegations of Portugal, Haiti, Montenegro and North Macedonia, which have participated in previous Olympic events, will also be making their debuts.
For the fourth consecutive edition, a record number of women have qualified, a total of 160, an increase of eighteen percent over the previous record of 136 set in Beijing 2022.
With information from EFE
