Russia and Belarus will field a combined 10 para athletes at next month’s Milano Cortina Paralympics, the International Paralympic Committee said Tuesday.
Both nations were barred from Paralympic competition following Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Their partial suspensions were lifted in September 2025 after IPC member organizations voted to restore full membership rights.
Belarus has served as a key staging ground for Russia’s military campaign.
Despite the IPC decision, international federations overseeing sports on the Paralympic program had signaled they would maintain their own bans. That stance shifted in December when Russia and Belarus won an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, clearing a path for their athletes to compete.
“Following the decision by IPC members at the September 2025 IPC General Assembly and December’s subsequent Court of Arbitration for Sport decision, both NPCs were eligible to apply for bipartite slots through FIS for the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games in the sports of para alpine skiing, para cross-country skiing and para snowboard,” the IPC said in a statement.
Russia will have two spots in para alpine skiing, two in para cross-country skiing and two in para snowboard.
“NPC Belarus has been awarded four slots in total, all in cross-country skiing, one male and three female,” the IPC added.
While those athletes will be allowed to compete under their national flags at the Paralympics from March 6 to 15, a limited number of Russian and Belarusian athletes are competing as neutral athletes without flags or anthems at the ongoing Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. The national Olympic committees of the two countries remain sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee.
The IPC decision angered Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych, who was disqualified last week from the skeleton event at the Milano Cortina Olympics.
“It’s absurd that they gift some quotas,” Heraskevych, who said he was disqualified for wanting to wear a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed during Russia’s invasion, told Reuters.
Speaking from Kyiv, Heraskevych added: “It’s kind of like we are accepting former soldiers to give them the opportunity to spread Russian propaganda with national flags, with national symbols. So it looks pretty insane.”
