Russia places THIRD at the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Italy
Twelve medals, eight of them gold! After a long hiatus, Russian athletes again were allowed to compete in the Winter Paralympics. Only six athletes, who all won medals at Milan/Cortina 2026, were allowed to participate in the Games.
The Russian team also competed under the national flag and anthem (having previously been forced to perform under neutral status). Alpine skier Varvara Voronchikhina won two gold medals in the super-G and slalom, silver in the giant slalom and bronze in the downhill. Cross-country skier Anastasia Bagiyan, meanwhile, won three gold medals. Together with host Sergey Sinyakin, she won the sprint, 10km and 20km races.
It’s alpine skier Alexey Bugayev's third Winter Paralympic Games: At the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia, he won two gold, two silver and bronze, while, in Pyeongchang in 2018, he won gold and silver.
This time, the athlete reached the podium three times: He dedicated his bronze medal in the giant slalom to the Russian people. "We are the strongest, we will overcome anything. It feels like you have an entire mountain behind you. So powerful that all difficulties and problems become nothing!" Bugayev also added bronze in the downhill and gold in the slalom to his team's tally.
Finally, skier Ivan Golubkov won the 10km and 20km sitting individual starts, far outstripping his competitors despite the challenging weather conditions.
