On Friday, March 6, the French delegation will march in Verona, Italy, during the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Games, which are running until March 15. This will happen despite the decision by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to allow six Russian athletes and four Belarusian athletes to participate under their national flags – and despite the French government’s decision not to send any official representatives to the event as a sign of protest.

“Even though we do not share this decision, we have chosen to respect it because it was made democratically,” explained Marie-Amélie Le Fur, the president of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee. The proposal had indeed been put to a vote among all IPC members.

Both nations had previously been sanctioned by international sports bodies because of the Kremlin’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, with support from Belarus, on February 24, 2022. In response to their return while the conflict continues, the Ukrainian delegation has decided to boycott the ceremony, a decision that is being supported by eight other countries and by Glenn Micallef, the European commissioner for sports.

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