CORTINA — Russia’s return to mainstream sport is one step closer after confirmation that six of their athletes would be permitted to compete at the 2026 Winter Paralympics.
Six Russian para-athletes will compete at the Winter Paralympics not just as neutrals, but representing their own country: the Russian flag, Russian colours and assuming they win some gold medals, the Russian national anthem.
Not since the explosive revelations of state-sponsored doping in the 2016 McLaren Report have Russia been allowed to bear the red, white and blue at the Olympic Games.
This latest ban came into place after the illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, since when Russian athletes wishing to compete as neutrals have had to prove they are free from any state sponsorship or association with the armed forces.
Vladimir Putin must be able to see the Olympics preparing for his country’s return (Photo: Getty)But that will all change next month, although the decision was made in September by a vote of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) members.
And it is a sign of things to come, too. The Winter Paralympics is the canary in the mine for Russia’s return to the World Cup and the Olympic Games.
Because a 63 per cent majority of members voted to lift the ban on Russia. It was a narrower majority to reinstate them, but a majority nevertheless.
Several IPC members were privately shocked, embarrassed even, by the result, but that is Euro-centric view, and one shared by ParalympicsGB, who called it the “wrong approach”, and culture, media and sport secretary Lisa Nandy, who it is understood has decided whether to attend the Winter Paralympics. The Ukrainians have already announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games, although their athletes will still attend.
And while almost all of Europe regards the invasion of Ukraine as an abhorrent and illegal war, that view is not shared in other parts of the world where Russian has more soft-power influence: there are 49 member nations in Europe, but there were 176 votes cast.
Nikita Filippov, competing as a neutral, won Russia’s first medal of Milan-Cortina 2026 on Thursday (Photo: AP)The same European minority is true of the Fifa Council, the body that banned Russia from international competition. Only 10 of the 37 members come from Europe – and one of them, president Gianni Infantino, has already indicated his willingness let Russia back in.
And the Russian athletes can see it coming.
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Nikita Filippov won the country’s first medal at Milan-Cortina 2026 on Thursday, finishing second in the ski mountaineering sprint race, albeit competing as a neutral.
“Of course it’s difficult when you see guys from different countries wearing national jackets, national boots, but I’m happy to be here. It’s my childhood dream,” Filippov said.
“It’s bad, but we should adapt and I hope next year after Olympics, World Cups, all around the world, there will be no neutral athletes… [that] it will be just like in the past.”
But there is a particularly disgusting irony that the Winter Paralympics is the event that will be the one to begin this appeasement. This was the event that Vladimir Putin used as a smokescreen for the first weeks of his bloody invasion, and as a billboard for his army.
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Worst of all, it is entirely possible that a Ukrainian Paralympian who was injured by the very attackers whom they have now welcomed back, could end up facing one of them on the field of play. It is actual stuff of nightmares.
“In Russia, Paralympic sport has been made a pillar for those whom Putin sent to Ukraine to kill and who returned from Ukraine with injuries and disabilities,” said Ukraine’s sports minister Matvii Bidnyi.
“When the Russian flag is raised on the international stage, it becomes part of Russia’s propaganda machine. It sends a message to the world that the war is ‘normal.’”
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