MILAN (AP) — Russian athletes will compete under their own flag at the Paralympics for the first time in more than a decade, and the country's national anthem will be played for any gold medalists.
Tuesday's announcement stands as another indicator that Russia and its national identity will be fully restored in Olympic circles well ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
The International Paralympic Committee's move led to Ukraine's sports minister announcing a boycott Wednesday of those March 6-15 games by the country's public officials.
“We will not be present at the opening ceremony. We will not take part in any other official Paralympic events,” sports minister Matvii Bidnyi said in a social media post.
The IPC said Russia’s National Paralympic Committee had been awarded six entry slots for the upcoming Milan Cortina Paralympic Games.
It will mark the first time a Russian flag has been flown at the Paralympics since the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia. The Russian national anthem for a gold medal win has not been heard at any Olympics or Paralympics since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games.
The country's athletes were initially banned because of a state-sponsored doping program, and the sanctions against Russia have continued since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Should a Paralympic athlete win gold, it will be the first time the Russian anthem has been played on the stage of any major global sporting event in the past four years.
Russia’s close ally, Belarus, has also been banned since 2022 but will have four slots at Milan Cortina.
“The IPC can confirm that NPC Russia has been awarded a total of six slots: two in Para alpine skiing (one male, one female), two in Para cross-country skiing (one male, one female), and two in Para snowboard (both male),” the statement said.
“NPC Belarus has been awarded four slots in total, all in cross-country skiing (one male and three female).”
In September, the IPC voted to lift partial suspensions of Russia and Belarus.
However, IPC President Andrew Parsons told The Associated Press in November that there would be no athletes from those countries at the Milan Cortina Games because the sports’ governing bodies had maintained their bans.
The following month, an appeal from Russia saw the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturn a blanket ban imposed by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation — paving the way for Russians to compete as neutral athletes at the 2026 Olympics, and with their own flag and anthem at the Paralympics.
The Russian Olympic Committee has been suspended since 2023 by the International Olympic Committee for breaking the Olympic charter by using an administrative land grab to incorporate regional sports bodies in occupied eastern Ukraine.
That decision is under an IOC legal review after the Russian Olympic body amended its statutes and could be overturned within months.
Following a system used in Paris in 2024, Russian athletes are competing at the current Olympics as individual neutral athletes — using the French acronym AIN — and without their flag, anthem or team colors.
Russian media reported that Aleksey Bugaev, a three-time Paralympic champion in Alpine skiing, is one of the athletes who has been given a slot along with cross-country skiers Ivan Golubkov and Anastasiia Bagiian, who have both won medals at world championships.
All three returned to competition last month, and both Bugaev and Bagiian have since won World Cup titles.
AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar contributed to this report.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
FILE - President of the International Paralympic Committee Andrew Parsons passes the Paralympic flag to Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass, not pictured, after receiving it from Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, not pictured, during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paralympics, Sept. 8, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin closed her eyes, gave a deep breath and took a big step back onto the top of an Olympic podium.
The American skiing standout was a gold medalist at the Winter Games once again — and she couldn’t quite believe it.
Shiffrin put in two dominant runs in gorgeous conditions amid the jagged peaks of the Dolomites to win the women's slalom by a massive 1.50 seconds, ending her eight-year medal drought at the Winter Games and showing why she is widely regarded as the greatest Alpine skier of all time.
In emotional scenes after the race, the 30-year-old Shiffrin was embraced by Camille Rast of Switzerland, who took silver, and bronze-medalist Anna Swenn Larsson before fighting back tears as she approached her mom and coach, Eileen, for a long, deep hug next to the finish area.
She also said she was thinking about her father, Jeff, who died at the age of 65 in an accident at the family home in Colorado in February 2020.
“This was a moment I have dreamed about — I’ve also been very scared of this moment,” Shiffrin said. "Everything in life that you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience. It’s like being born again.
“And I still have so many moments where I resist this. I don’t want to be in life without my dad,” she added, her voice trembling. “And maybe today was the first time that I could actually accept this, like, reality.”
The victory made Shiffrin the first American skier to win three Alpine golds and was the third-largest margin of victory in a women’s Olympic slalom — the event she won as a fresh-faced teenager in Sochi in 2014 to underline her status as a skiing star.
Twelve years later, and having gone through so many highs and lows on and off the course, she delivered again in her favorite race as her skiing career came full circle.
“Maybe,” she added, “just today, I realized what happened in Sochi. It’s crazy.”
A the medal ceremony, she shook both of her hands as she was about to receive her gold medal, clearly overcome by emotion. When it was placed around her neck, she looked down at it almost in disbelief.
Maybe it was a release of all the pressure on Shiffrin after she failed to win an Olympic medal in eight races since adding gold and silver to her collection in Pyeongchang in 2018.
A nightmarish 0-for-6 performance in Beijiing was followed in Cortina d’Ampezzo this year by a fourth-place finish with Breezy Johnson in the team combined, in which Shiffrin placed 15th in the slalom portion, and an 11th place in the giant slalom.
It was fodder for the “keyboard warriors,” Shiffrin acknowledged, but she ignored all of them
That's all in the past.
Shiffrin has now won three golds and a silver at the Olympics to add to her record total on World Cup wins — it's 108 and counting, including 71 in slalom. There's also world titles in slalom (four), giant slalom and super-G to fill out arguably the greatest career in Alpine racing.
“In another league,” was how Larsson put it.
Shiffrin led by 0.82 seconds after the first run on a mostly flat course that Team USA officials described to her over the radio as a “high-tempo ripper.”
There was one wobble when she struck a gate and for a fraction of a second, it appeared she was headed for another Olympic disappointment.
Not this time.
She snapped back into form to post a time, in the No. 7 bib, no one could get near.
“When I saw one second (behind) after the first run," Rast said, "I was like, ‘OK, the gold is gone.'"
Shiffrin's second run was also smooth, getting through the tough top section without a hitch and pushing through the slower middle section. When she leaned forward to cross the line, Shiffrin had the largest margin of victory in any Olympic Alpine skiing event since 1998.
“I just wanted to feel those two runs — I'm proud but I'm also very grateful,” Shiffrin said.
“A big thing I've been working on with my team and my psychologist is, like, you have what you need within yourself. And I can't say that for giant slalom yet. I can't always say that in the start gate. But in the start gate today, I could.”
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin kisses the gold medal of the alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates winning the gold medal of the alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin shows her gold medal of the alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin is overcome with emotion after winning an alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin, center, winner of an alpine ski, women's slalom race, celebrates with second-placed Switzerland's Camille Rast, left, and third-placed Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin, center, winner of an alpine ski, women's slalom race, celebrates with second-placed Switzerland's Camille Rast, left, and third-placed Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin, center, winner of an alpine ski, women's slalom race, is congratulated by second-placed Switzerland's Camille Rast, right, and third-placed Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin arrives at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
