Moscow is competing in the Winter Paralympics under its national flag for the first time in more than a decade
Italians have erupted in applause for Russian and Belarusian athletes as they held the flags of their countries in Verona at the 2026 Paralympic Games, a video circulating on social media shows.
“Welcome back,” the group of well-wishers reportedly told the athletes.
Russia has won its first Winter Paralympic medals since 2014, with Varvara Voronchikhina and Aleksey Bugaev taking bronze in the women’s and men’s downhill standing events in Italy earlier on Saturday.
The Russian Paralympic team was cleared to compete once more in January, after Moscow won an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. The body was still barring athletes from Russia despite the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) fully reinstating Russian and Belarusian participation last year.
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