IPC president disappointed with Ukraine for shifting focus to politics at Milan Cortina Paralympics

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The president of the International Paralympic Committee was disappointed with the complaints made by Ukraine's National Paralympic Committee during the Milan Cortina Games, saying they appeared to be an attempt to shift the focus from sports to politics.

Andrew Parsons spoke with The Associated Press on the final day of the Winter Paralympic Games on Sunday, praising the outcome of the competition and discussing the return of the Russian flag and anthem, the effects of the warmer weather and the challenges of organizing the event at widespread venues.

Parsons called it “disappointing” that the Ukrainian National Paralympic Committee and the national committees of other nations tried to turn the focus away from sports.

He said he was “super empathetic” with the situation in Ukraine and can “only try to imagine the horror,” but as a sports organization, the IPC must make sure that rules are not broken, even by the Ukrainian committee.

“Yes, I think there was an attempt to always take the focus from sport,” Parsons said. “And I think at the end, even the other national Paralympic committees responded really well, focusing on sports. I understand, but it is disappointing to some extent.”

He said it was expected to see governments attempting to shift the focus toward politics, but it was regrettable that sports bodies were doing it.

“I do hope this is a lesson learned also for those NPCs that have chosen to focus more on the political side than on the sport side, because sport has prevailed,” he said.

Valerii Sushkevych, president of the Ukraine National Paralympic Committee, told the AP in a telephone interview on Sunday that calling for peace and to stop the war was not a political statement, but a human-rights issue.

“If people in the world want to live in peace, it's human rights, it's not political,” Sushkevych said.

Ukraine and a few other nations boycotted the opening ceremony — and were set to boycott Sunday's closing ceremony as well — because of the IPC's decision to give Russian athletes wildcard entries for the Games and allow them to compete under their own flag for the first time in more than a decade.

Sushkevych said the ceremonies are not sporting competitions and are used as a political event by the IPC, which was allowing the participation of a nation that "can't be present here” because of the occupation of another country.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago ignited Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, causing suffering for civilians and harrowing ordeals for soldiers while rewriting the post-Cold War security order. The fighting has entered its fifth year, with the number of casualties — people killed, wounded or missing — combined from both sides estimated in the millions.

Ukraine’s Paralympic committee accused the IPC and Milan Cortina organizers of subjecting Ukraine’s athletes and coaches to “systematic pressure.” It said the incidents included the alleged forceful removal of a Ukrainian flag, the breaking up of planning meetings by the Ukrainian team, and the prohibition of a Ukrainian athlete from wearing an earring with the words “Stop War” at a podium ceremony. The IPC and local organizers defended their actions.

Sushkevych said the complaints were made to the IPC to defend its athletes because they were being subjected to what he called “discrimination” and biased behavior against the Ukrainians. He said they were only complaining about “facts.”

Parsons said it was expected that some nations weren't happy with the return of the Russian flag, but he felt that the “vast majority” of the national Paralympic committees focused on sport, “because the sport element of it is what helps us fulfill our mission, which is to make for a more inclusive world through Para sport, and not external politics.”

“There was still some voices out there trying to continue focusing on what, in our opinion, should not be the focus of these games, but I think the overall impression of the people, especially people at home watching on TV or following the media, following the news, is (the focus) was more on athletes, more on sport, records, than in politics,” he said.

The Russian flag flew at the Paralympics for the first time since the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, and the anthem was played for the first time at a major global sporting event since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The return of the Russian flag and anthem was seen by some as a signal of a possible full-fledged return to Olympic circles ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Parson said the general assembly made the vote to lift the suspension solely with the best interests of the Paralympic movement in mind.

“We don’t think that we are going to initiate processes,” he said. “I know some people believe that this might have the impact on another sporting body, but that’s not what we’re focusing on. It’s for the IOC to make their decisions, it’s for FIFA to make their decisions, and every other international organization to make their decisions."

Parsons said discussions will continue about the effect of warmer weather on the Paralympics. Milan Cortina organizers had to change the schedule of some events because of high temperatures, and some athletes competed in shorts, T-shirts and tank tops.

“Unfortunately, global leaders are not responding in the speed that is necessary to slow down the process," he said. "So this is probably a trend that we will see in 2030, ‘34, ’38 '42 and so on. So we need to have those discussions, and we are having those discussions” within the IPC and together with the IOC and international federations.

“It’s a very big jigsaw puzzle,” Parsons said. “It’s not only, ‘OK, let’s move the Games one month in advance — Olympics in January, Paralympics in February.' That is also an impact on the regular season of those sports. So we need to consider all these different elements. These discussions are taking place. We are not sitting on our hands.”

Parsons said the model of spread-out Games — with competitions and venues in different clusters to reduce the cost of building new facilities — is “here to stay.”

“I think the biggest learning is that it is possible to have great Games, even with that widespread venue master plan. It does not compromise the spirit of the Games, but, yes, brings additional complexity to the operations that needs to be mitigated, and needs to be well understood, and I think having this first experience here, we have a lot of learning to take to 2030, 2034.”

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

Andrew Parsons, President of the International Paralympic Committee, speaks during the opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Verona, Italy, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

HOUSTON (AP) — Their dramatic grand finale fast approaching, Artemis II’s astronauts aimed for a splashdown in the Pacific on Friday to close out humanity’s first voyage to the moon in more than a half-century.

The tension in Mission Control mounted as the miles melted away between the four returning astronauts and Earth.

All eyes were on the capsule’s life-protecting heat shield that has 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.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen were on track to 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.

They didn’t plan on taking manual control except in an emergency. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, is completely self-flying.

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

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.

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.

“It just makes you want to continue to go back,” Radigan said on the eve of splashdown. “It's the first of many trips and we just need to continue on because there’s so much” more to learn about the moon.

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 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)