The British Government will boycott the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Paralympics in Milano-Cortina in protest at Russian and Belarusian athletes being allowed to compete under their own flags
The UK Government will snub the Winter Paralympics opening and closing ceremonies in protest at Russian and Belarusian athletes being allowed to compete under their own flags.
Six athletes from Russia and four from Belarus will be directly representing their nations rather than competing as neutrals at the Games in Milano-Cortina. This comes after the International Paralympics Committee (IPC) lifted a partial ban and Russia and Belarus successfully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against a ban imposed by FIS, the worldwide governing body for skiing and snowboarding.
Russia has been ostracised from international sport since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with this participation at the Paralympics marking the most significant step back since then. Ukraine and other countries had already signalled their intention to boycott the opening and closing ceremonies, and now the UK has followed suit.
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A spokesperson for the British Government said: “We strongly oppose the decision of the International Paralympic Committee to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their own flags at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games.
“We have been clear that the Russian and Belarusian states should not be represented in international sport whilst the barbaric full-scale invasion of Ukraine is ongoing.
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“Therefore, no Government ministers or officials will attend the opening or closing ceremonies of the Paralympics.” The UK Government statement further noted that Sports Minister Stephanie Peacock would be in Cortina solely to back British athletes.
The statement added: “They have worked tirelessly over the last four years to be ready for the biggest moment of their sporting lives and deserve to have the nation behind them.”
The Winter Paralympics begins on March 6 and lasts until March 15. The closing ceremony of the able-bodied Winter Olympics only finished on February 22.
One of the most contentious moments of the competition was the decision to disqualify Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych from competing in Milan and Cortina. He was banned from competing for refusing to not wear a helmet which was emblazoned with the faces of Ukrainian athletes killed as a result of Russia’s invasion of his homeland.
While he was allowed to remain in Italy for the Games, he was forbidden from competing, after the IOC said his helmet violated rules against political speech in competition. They also said his helmet went against IOC’s guidelines on athlete expression.
However, Italian snowboarder Roland Fischnaller was allowed to compete, despite a Russian flag, which are forbidden along with the Belarusian flag, appearing on his helmet.
The seven-time Olympian had multiple flags on his helmet representing the countries he has competed in, with the Russian flag understood to represent the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
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