Finland to Skip Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics Opening Ceremony in Support of Ukraine

The Finnish Paralympic Committee has announced that Finland will not take part in the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games on March 6th in Verona, responding to a request from Ukraine. Alongside Finland and Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Poland have also decided to abstain from the ceremony.

The decision follows the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) allocation in February of individual bipartite quota places — commonly referred to as “wild cards” — for the upcoming Games.

These invitations enabled additional athletes to qualify for Milan Cortina 2026 despite not securing places through standard qualification results. As customary, the allocations were made based on applications submitted by national Paralympic committees.

When the decisions were announced in the third week of February, it emerged that the IPC had awarded six wild card places to Russian athletes across Para alpine skiing, Para cross-country skiing and Para snowboard, as well as four places to Belarusian athletes in Para cross-country skiing.

Ukraine reacted strongly to the decision. Ukrainian Minister of Sport Matvii Bidnyi described the move as “both disappointing and outrageous.”

While also Ukraine has chosen not to boycott the Paralympic competitions — and has finalised its own team using allocated wild card places — the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee and Ukrainian embassies across Europe have appealed to other European nations to demonstrate solidarity by refraining from participating in the opening ceremony.

Finland has now joined three other neighbouring countries of Russia — Estonia, Latvia and Poland — in supporting that request.

“We want to ensure that our athletes still have the opportunity to pursue their long-awaited Paralympic dreams despite the ongoing war in Europe, which inevitably casts a shadow over the Milano Cortina Games,” said Sari Rautio, Chair of the Finnish Paralympic Committee. “At the same time, the least we can do is express our position regarding the IPC’s decisions concerning Russian athletes by skipping the opening ceremony, as Ukraine has asked.”

Russian and Belarusian Athletes’ Return to Competition

In September 2025, amid international controversy, the IPC lifted its previous ban preventing Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in the Paralympics under their national designations.

The countries had originally been excluded following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ahead of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympics, the policy shifted to a partial ban allowing athletes to compete as neutrals.

However, in four of the six Winter Paralympic sports — cross-country skiing, biathlon, alpine skiing and snowboard — international federations maintained their own competition bans, preventing Russian and Belarusian athletes from entering qualification events.

In December 2025, Russia and Belarus successfully appealed against the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), allowing their athletes to return to competition and earn ranking points.

Ultimately, participation for 10 athletes from the two countries in Milan Cortina 2026 was confirmed through the IPC’s February wild card allocations.


Media contact:

Sari Rautio
President, Finnish Paralympic Committee
sari.rautio@paralympia.fi
+358 40 522 0933