2026 Winter Paralympics: Inside Cortina’s wheelchair curling session as the IPC hails record participation
A row of stones glides across ice scuffed by rubber wheels as athletes exchange quick, focused words. At one end, Laura Dwyer pushes off from her wheelchair and watches a stone track toward the button while Stephen Emt gestures encouragement; at the other, Katlin Riidebach lines up a shot for Estonia. That scene — a mixed doubles wheelchair curling round robin in Cortina d’Ampezzo — is a small, vivid moment at the center of the 2026 winter paralympics, which open Friday with an opening ceremony shadowed by diplomatic objections and the return of a national flag that has prompted some delegations to boycott.
2026 Winter Paralympics: Records, scope and the anniversary
The International Paralympic Committee celebrates what it calls the biggest Winter Paralympic Games in history. The Games bring 616 athletes from 56 nations to compete across 79 medal events in six sports, surpassing the previous high mark. The Milan Cortina program also marks the 50th anniversary of the Winter Paralympics; the movement began with fewer than 200 athletes from 18 countries competing in two sports at Ornskoldsvik in 1976.
Among the delegations is Iran, whose para cross-country skier Aboulfazl Khatibi has been named the nation’s flagbearer. Practical arrangements at the opening ceremony in Verona, however, will shift that responsibility: volunteers will carry flags for all nations because not every named flagbearer can attend the ceremony for logistics and training reasons.
A larger, more diverse field — and a surge in female participation
One of the clearest shifts at Milan Cortina is the makeup of the athlete pool. The International Paralympic Committee highlights a record 160 female competitors at these Games, 24 more than the previous record at Beijing 2022. That uptick marks the fourth consecutive Winter Paralympics to set a new high for female participation.
Laura Dwyer, a 48-year-old U. S. wheelchair curler who suffered a life-threatening workplace accident in 2012 when a 1, 000-pound tree branch fell on her, framed the milestone personally: “That’s fantastic, ” she said. “As a female, as a mom, as someone injured… it feels amazing to be a part of that, to show the way for others. ”
Six countries are bringing record numbers of female athletes: Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Croatia, Korea and Latvia. Five sports have their own female participation records — Para alpine skiing, Para biathlon, Para cross-country skiing, Para snowboard and wheelchair curling. In Para ice hockey, a mixed-gender event, a female athlete will compete for a second consecutive time and for only the fourth time since the sport joined the Paralympic program.
Opening ceremony tensions and practical responses
The Games’ opening ceremony will unfold under a political shadow: the return of the Russian flag and national anthem to the global stage has prompted some nations to boycott the ceremony. Organizers have adjusted the procession to account for logistical constraints and the training schedules of athletes; that adjustment has resulted in volunteers carrying flags for delegations whose named flagbearers cannot be present in Verona.
On the ground in Cortina and nearby venues, that mixture of celebration and protest is tangible. The curling hall — where the stones keep moving and athletes refocus between ends — is a reminder that competitive life continues even as larger diplomatic debates play out. Volunteers, officials and athletes are adapting to both the practical demands of the schedule and the symbolic weight of the ceremonies.
For organizers and the International Paralympic Committee, the figures and the anniversary offer a narrative of growth. For athletes such as Dwyer, the Games are also intensely personal: a platform to compete, to represent, and to demonstrate possibility for future generations of athletes with disabilities.
Back on the ice, Dwyer lines up another delivery, the crowd hushed as the stone settles. The moment loops back to the opening tableau — an athlete, a teammate, a precise shot — and to the larger story these Games are telling about scale, inclusion and the practical work that makes international competition possible.
