CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — A closing ceremony boycotted by Ukraine signaled the end of the Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics on Sunday, hours after the U.S. Para ice hockey team won the final gold medal of the Games that were marked by the return of the Russian flag and national anthem to the global sports stage.
China continued its dominance as a Paralympic powerhouse and topped the medals table with 15 golds, two more than the United States, which matched its total from the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.
The Milan Cortina Games marked the 50th anniversary of the Winter Paralympics.
The Russian anthem, which hadn’t played at the Paralympics in more than a decade, rang out eight times at Milan Cortina after the victories of Russian athletes who were competing under their own flag again at the Paralympics for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
The Paralympic Games were back in Italy 20 years after being held in Turin. It was the 14th edition of the Winter Paralympics since the inaugural edition in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, in 1976.
The Russian flag made its official return at the opening ceremony in Verona, and its national anthem was played for the first time at these Games after Para alpine skier Varvara Voronchikhina won gold last Monday.
The anthem had not been heard at any Olympics or Paralympics since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games.
Russian athletes were 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.
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.
After topping every Summer Paralympics since 2004, China again finished first in the medals table at the Winter Paralympics. Russia was third with eight gold medals.
China won 44 medals in total, 20 more than the Americans.
Host Italy ended in fourth place with seven gold medals, the same as Austria where siblings Veronika and Johannes Aigner dominated Para alpine skiing.
Veronika Aigner was one of three athletes with four gold medals, along with American Para cross-country skiers Oksana Masters and Jake Adicoff. Masters, the most decorated American Winter Paralympian, won a bronze in addition to her four gold medals. Adicoff is the first out gay American male Winter Paralympic champion.
Milan Cortina marked the biggest Winter Paralympics ever with a total of 611 Para athletes from 55 nations, surpassing the previous record of 564 Para athletes from 48 countries in 2018.
A record number of female Para athletes competed for the fourth straight Paralympic Winter Games, the IPC said. There were 160 female competitors at Milan Cortina, 24 more than the previous record at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
A total of 27 nations won medals across 79 medal events in six sports, the greatest number of countries to win at least one medal at a Paralympic Winter Games since the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
The IPC said Milan Cortina was the most widely broadcast Paralympic Winter Games in history with 20 media rights holders broadcasting the Games to a record 126 countries.
Even before the Milan Cortina Games began, curling was rocked by another scandal when two stones went missing at the Curling Olympic Stadium that hosted Sunday’s closing ceremony. The incident came a couple of weeks after the sport was in the headlines during the Olympics as the Canadian team was accused of cheating.
The warm weather played a role at Milan Cortina, with high temperatures forcing organizers to change the schedule of some events. Athletes were seen competing in shorts, T-shirts and tank tops.
Heavy snow arrived only Sunday, and it prompted the delay of some races as well.
The French Alps will host the 2030 Winter Paralympic Games.
IPC President Andrew Parsons said there are talks about adding more sports to those Games, including skating and sliding disciplines. He said there is also the possibility to add other disability groups such as intellectually impaired athletes.
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