Paralympics 2026: Ukrainians started with gold on the first day of competition
On Saturday, 7 March, the first day of competition at the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, will take place. Nineteen Ukrainian para-athletes will compete on this day.
The Ukrainian team is represented in two disciplines — para-biathlon and para-snowboarding.
In the first race of the day — the men's sitting para-biathlon sprint — Ukrainian Taras Rad won the gold medal. Other results for Ukraine in this discipline:
- Vasyl Kravchuk — 4th place;
- Oleksandr Oleksyk — 9th place;
- Pavlo Bal — 12th place;
- Grygoriy Shymko — 15th place.
The following events involving Ukrainian athletes are scheduled for the first day:
- 12:07 — Para snowboarding.
Men's snowboard cross, SB-UL class — Vladislav Khilchenko.
- 13:00 — Para biathlon.
Women's sprint, standing class — Lyudmila Lyashenko, Bohdana Konashuk, Oleksandra Kononova, Iryna Buy.
- 13:40 — Para biathlon.
Men's sprint, standing class — Seraphim Dragun, Grigory Vovchinsky, Dmitry Sereda, Sergey Romanyuk.
- 14:15 — Para biathlon.
Women's sprint, visually impaired — Romana Lobasheva, Ilona Kazik, Oleksandra Danilenko, Oksana Shishkova.
- 14:50 — Para biathlon.
Sprint for men with visual impairments — Dmytro Suyarko, Maksym Murashkovskyi, Yaroslav Reshetynskyi, Anatolii Kovalevskyi, Oleksandr Kazik.
The XIV Winter Paralympic Games are taking place from 6 to 15 March in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. A total of 79 sets of medals will be awarded in six sports during the competition.
Ukraine is fielding a record-breaking team at the 2026 Paralympics: the country is represented by 35 participants, including 25 Paralympic athletes and 10 guides.
The opening ceremony of the Games took place on 6 March. The Ukrainian delegation completely boycotted the ceremony due to the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus under their national flags.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) allowed six Russian and four Belarusian athletes to participate with the right to use national symbols and perform anthems during the award ceremony.
Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands, Canada, Croatia, Lithuania, Germany, Austria, Romania, Great Britain, France and Australia also joined the boycott of the opening ceremony at the government level.
The IPC has banned Ukrainian Paralympians from competing in uniforms bearing the image of the map of Ukraine at the 2026 Paralympics.
