Russian anthem played again at Paralympics after Germany athletes' protest at Milan Cortina

The Russian national anthem rang again at the Paralympics on Wednesday, a day after Germany athletes appeared to stage a protest in the podium ceremony at Milan Cortina.

Ivan Golubkov won Russia's third gold of these Games in the men's Para cross-country 10km interval start sitting. Anastasiia Bagiian then added the nations' fourth gold by winning the women’s Para cross-country 10km interval start classic for athletes with vision impaired.

”I am very happy," Golubkov said. "I spent 20 years to get to this point. I was preparing for every race and planned to show a good performance in every race, but this race was very smooth, and it went very well.”

The anthem had played for the first time in more than a decade at the Paralympics on Monday, and again on Tuesday when Bagiian won the Para cross-country sprint classic.

Russian athletes are back competing under their own flag in the Winter Paralympics after years of having to do so as neutral athletes because of the country’s doping violations and military conflicts.

During the podium ceremony on Tuesday, German silver medalist Linn Kazmaier and her guide, Florian Baumann, looked down as the Russian flag was raised and the anthem was played. Then they kept their distance from the Russian athletes while posing for photos with the medals. While leaving the stage, they appeared to refuse to take a photo with the other podium finalists.

The German National Paralympic Committee said it “was an expression of solidarity with their friends, the Ukrainian athletes.”

There had been no incidents during the podium ceremony when Russian Para alpine skier Varvara Voronchikhina won gold on Monday. It is the first time Russia’s anthem was played at a major global sporting event since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the first time it was heard at the Paralympics since the 2014 Games in Sochi.

Germany was among the nations that criticized the return of Russian athletes competing under their flag at the Milan Cortina Games. Some nations, including Ukraine, boycotted the opening ceremony on Friday.

The Russian national anthem for a gold medal win had not been heard at any Olympics or Paralympics since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games.

Russian athletes were initially banned because of a state-sponsored doping program, and the sanctions had continued after the invasion.

Russia arrived at Milan Cortina with six athletes who were given wildcard entries by the International Paralympic Committee.

AP Winter Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games

Silver medalist Mao Zhongwu, of China, left, shakes hands with gold medalist Ivan Golubkov, of Russia, while bronze medalist Zheng Peng, of China, looks on, on the podium after the cross country skiing men's 10Km interval start sitting final at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ivan Golubkov, of Russia, competes in the cross country skiing men's 10Km interval start sitting final at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ivan Golubkov, of Russia, waves from the podium after winning the gold medal in the cross country skiing men's 10Km interval start sitting final at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Anastasiia Bagiian, of Russia, and her guide Sergei Siniakin, wave from the podium after winning the gold medal in the cross country skiing women's 10Km interval start classic vision impaired final at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Anastasiia Bagiian, of Russia, leaves the podium with her guide Sergei Siniakin, after winning the gold medal in the cross country skiing women's 10Km interval start classic vision impaired final at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

HOUSTON (AP) — Artemis II’s astronauts returned from the moon with a dramatic splashdown in the Pacific on Friday to close out humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than a half-century.

It was a triumphant homecoming for the crew of four whose record-breaking lunar flyby revealed not only swaths of the moon’s far side — never seen before by human eyes — but a total solar eclipse.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen hit the atmosphere traveling Mach 33 — or 33 times the speed of sound — a blistering blur not seen since NASA’s Apollo moonshots of the 1960s and 1970s. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, made the plunge on automatic pilot.

The tension in Mission Control mounted as the capsule became engulfed in red-hot plasma during peak heating and entered a planned communication blackout.

All eyes were on the capsule’s life-protecting heat shield that had to withstand thousands of degrees during reentry. On the spacecraft’s only other test flight — in 2022, with no one on board — the shield’s charred exterior came back looking as pockmarked as the moon.

Like so many others, lead flight director Jeff Radigan anticipated feeling some of that “irrational fear that is human nature,” especially during the six-minute blackout that preceded the opening of the parachutes. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha awaited the crew’s arrival off the San Diego coast, along with a squadron of military planes and helicopters.

The astronauts’ families huddled in Mission Control’s viewing room, where cheers erupted when the capsule emerged from its communication blackout and again at splashdown.

The last time NASA and the Defense Department teamed up for a lunar crew's reentry was Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis II was projected to come screaming back at 36,170 feet (11,025 meters) per second — or 24,661 mph (39,668 kph) — just shy of the record before slowing to a 19 mph (30 kph) splashdown.

“A perfect bull’s-eye splashdown,” reported Mission Control’s Rob Navias.

Launched from Florida on April 1, the astronauts racked up one win after another as they deftly navigated NASA’s long-awaited lunar comeback, the first major step in establishing a sustainable moon base.

Artemis II didn't land on the moon or even orbit it. But it broke Apollo 13's distance record and marked the farthest that humans have ever journeyed from Earth when the crew reached 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers). Then in the mission's most heart-tugging scene, the teary astronauts asked permission to name a pair of craters after their moonship and Wiseman's late wife, Carroll.

During Monday's record-breaking flyby, they documented scenes of the moon's far side never seen before by the human eye along with a total solar eclipse. The eclipse, in particular, “just blew all of us away,” Glover said.

Their sense of wonder and love awed everyone, as did their breathtaking pictures of the moon and Earth. The Artemis II crew channeled Apollo 8's first lunar explorers with Earthset, showing our Blue Marble setting behind the gray moon. It was reminiscent of Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise shot from 1968.

“We are back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon, bringing them back safely and to set up for a series more," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Friday from the recovery ship. "This is just the beginning.”

Their moonshot drew global attention as well as star power, earning props from President Donald Trump; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney; Britain's King Charles III; Ryan Gosling, star of the latest space flick “Project Hail Mary”; Scarlett Johansson of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; and even Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner of TV’s original “Star Trek.”

Despite its rich scientific yield, the nearly 10-day flight was not without technical issues. Both the capsule’s drinking water and propellant systems were hit with valve problems. In perhaps the most high-profile predicament, the toilet kept malfunctioning, but the astronauts shrugged it all off.

“We can’t explore deeper unless we are doing a few things that are inconvenient,” Koch said, “unless we’re making a few sacrifices, unless we’re taking a few risks, and those things are all worth it.”

Added Hansen: “You do a lot of testing on the ground, but your final test is when you get this hardware to space and it’s a doozy.”

Under the revamped Artemis program, next year’s Artemis III will see astronauts practice docking their capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will attempt to land a crew of two near the moon’s south pole in 2028.

The Artemis II astronauts' allegiance was to those future crews, Wiseman said.

“But we really hoped in our soul is that we could for just for a moment have the world pause and remember that this is a beautiful planet and a very special place in our universe, and we should all cherish what we have been gifted,” he said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In this photo provided by NASA, the Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers aboard approaches the surface of the Pacific Ocean for splashdown off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

In this photo provided by NASA, the Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers aboard approaches the surface of the Pacific Ocean for splashdown off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

In this image from video provided by NASA, the Artemis II Orion capsule splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, on Friday, April 10, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this photo provided by NASA, U.S. Navy divers prepare to deploy in small boats from the well deck of USS John P. Murtha to recover Artemis II crew members NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist and NASA's Orion spacecraft in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

In this image from video provided by NASA, the Artemis II Orion capsule, right, separates from the service module above the Earth in preparation for splash down in the Pacific Ocean. (NASA via AP)

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew, counterclockwise from top left, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover pose with eclipse viewers during a lunar flyby, Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew photographed the Moons curved limb during their journey around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew photographed a bright portion of the Moon on April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this view as the Earth sets behind the Moon during a lunar flyby, Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)