Fifty years, that's worth celebrating! Launched in Sweden in 1976, the Winter Paralympic Games will celebrate their half-century of existence in Milan-Cortina next year. A strong symbol for the Paralympic movement, which plans to ride the wave of the success of Paris 2024 to continue its growth. On Thursday, on the occasion of the "One Year to Go", the president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Andrew Parsons, set the tone. "I have high expectations on many aspects", he says, while promising one thing: “The legacy, the return of spectators after Beijing 2022, the competitions, the setting: these Games will be breathtaking.”
Veni, vidi, Verona
An IPC delegation was in Verona on Wednesday to visit the arena, which will host the opening ceremony on March 6, 2026. Several Italian para athletes were there. The amphitheater is one of the emblems of the legacy of these Paralympic Games. In the coming months, Simico will install walkways and a transparent elevator to make the site accessible. “People with disabilities face the Paralympic Games every day by overcoming architectural barriers in cities, Luca Pancalli said, president of the Italian Paralympic Committee. This is not just an accessibility project for a historic monument. It is a symbolic challenge: to show that if we can do it here, we can do it everywhere." China had taken the Great Wall as an example in the run-up to the 2008 Games, installing elevators and wheelchair ramps.
Accessibility has been widely highlighted thanks to the lighting of the Games: the Lombardy region has ordered around fifty adapted trains and urban transport networks have undergone numerous adjustments to facilitate travel for people with reduced mobility. Museums and sports infrastructures have also made efforts to welcome the public in better conditions. "If it is possible to make an amphitheater that is more than two thousand years old accessible, then it is possible to do it anywhere", insists Andrew Parsons, keen to promote ever higher standards in terms of accessibility. To leave a lasting legacy to the territories, but also to offer the best possible experience to the spectators who will attend the various events. The challenge is all the greater since the Winter Games were held without foreign spectators in Beijing due to the health context. Milan-Cortina 2026 therefore wants to get back on track, unite and inspire. Tickets are now officially open and more than 200.000 tickets are on sale for less than 35 euros.
"The perfect place"
Particularly complimentary towards the Italian Paralympic movement, Andrew Parsons believes in "an important step for Italy" in terms of inclusion. "Italy was sixth in the Paris 2024 medal table and very close to fifth place", he recalls. Italian athletes won 71 medals, including 24 gold, in Paris. A historic record for the country, which has progressed spectacularly over the course of the Games (28 medals in 2012, 39 in 2016, 69 in 2021). "In Italy, the Paralympic movement is in line with what we are doing at a global level, it is a catalyst for change, a platform to change perceptions, but also to change the reality of people with disabilities, continues the president of the IPC. So I think there will be a very strong message, a lasting and very significant change in the way Italian society in general perceives people with disabilities. And you have incredible ambassadors like Bebe Vio (two-time Paralympic fencing champion), incredible athletes, an incredible generation of young athletes. I think we are living in a very positive moment in Italy. It is the perfect place for the Winter Games. An edition that the IPC promises to be significant and historic. Andrew Parsons also hopes that the record of participating nations set at PyeongChang 2018 (49) will be beaten.
