Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games

Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, international sports competition for athletes with disabilities that was held in northern Italy from March 6 to 15, 2026. The event marked the 50th anniversary of the Paralympic Winter Games, which were first held in 1976 in Sweden. It was also the second Paralympics to be hosted in Italy, following the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. More than 650 athletes competed in 79 medal events across biathlon, Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, snowboarding, and wheelchair curling. Events of the 2026 Games were spread across the city of Milan, the Alpine mountain resort town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, and the town of Tesero.

Venues and organization

Since the 1992 Games in Albertville, France, the Paralympic Games have been hosted by the same country hosting the Olympics; the Paralympics follow shortly after the Olympics conclude. Thus when Italy’s bid won the vote of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2019, the country became the host of the 2026 Winter Olympics and the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games. In order to utilize existing venues, many of the Olympic and Paralympic arenas and sports complexes required upgrades to make them fully accessible to athletes, officials, and spectators with disabilities. For example, the historic Verona Arena, site of the Paralympics’ opening ceremony, was refurbished with an elevator, accessible restrooms, improved ramps, and enhanced routes from the railway station. However, some of the modifications to the arena, the third largest surviving Roman amphitheater in Europe, were temporary. In addition, Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo, and Tesero invested in broader accessibility improvements, including upgrades to public spaces, transportation infrastructure, and services to create a more inclusive environment for residents and visitors with disabilities. These changes were intended to leave a lasting legacy of accessibility in the region long after the Paralympics concluded.

Covering more than 1,200 miles (2,000 km), the torch relay for the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games began on February 24, 2026, and ended on March 6 at the opening ceremony at the Verona Arena. The closing ceremony of the Games was held on March 15 at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.

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The Medals

The medals for the Games featured Braille inscriptions specifying the discipline, as well as markings on the edges indicating whether the medal is gold, silver, or bronze.

The logo for the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, titled “Futura,” was unveiled in 2021. Featuring the numbers two and six in the International Paralympic Committee’s colors of red, green, and blue—a color variation of the Olympic logo—the design was selected by popular vote. It was the first Olympic or Paralympic logo to be chosen in this way. The mascot, named Milo, for the host city Milan, was a three-legged brown stoat (a white stoat named Tina served as the 2026 Winter Olympics mascot). Branding for the Games also included “The Flo,” six characters based on the snowdrop plant.

Competition and events

A total of about 665 athletes competed in the Games. In late 2025 the International Paralympic Committee voted to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in the 2026 Games under their own flags; however, given that athletes from those countries were barred by individual sporting federations from qualification events, no Russian or Belarusian athletes qualified for the Winter Games. (In contrast, qualifying athletes from Russia and Belarus have been allowed to participate in the Olympics under the designation Individual Neutral Athletes, a policy that began at the 2024 Paris Summer Games in response to the Russia-Ukraine War.)

Seventy-nine events, spanning six sports, were held across three locations as detailed in the table below.