Milano Cortina 2026: Record-breaking Paralympic Winter Games

As the Paralympic Winter Games celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, Milano Cortina 2026 broke a number of data, setting benchmarks for all future Games.

Record variety of Para athletes and NPCs 

A complete of 611 Para athletes from 55 National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) competed within the Games. This was probably the most ever, surpassing the earlier file excessive of 564 Para athletes from 48 NPCs at Pyeong Chang 2018. 

Five NPCs made their Paralympic Winter Games debut with El Salvador, Haiti, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Portugal all competing on snow and ice for the very first time. 

More feminine rivals than ever earlier than 

For the fourth successive Paralympic Winter Games, a file variety of girls  competed. A complete of 160 feminine rivals challenged for medals throughout six sports activities, an 18 per cent enhance on the earlier file excessive of 136 girls set at Beijing 2022. 

Six NPCs boasted a file variety of feminine rivals for the Paralympic Winter Games:  Australia (5), Belarus (3), Brazil (3), Croatia (2), Korea (6), Latvia (4). 

Five sports activities had a file variety of feminine rivals: Para alpine snowboarding (57 girls), Para biathlon (45), Para cross-country snowboarding (65), Para snowboard (15) and wheelchair curling (25). 

Record variety of medal-winning NPCs 

Highlighting the rising power of winter Paralympic sport internationally, 27 NPCs gained medals throughout 79 medal occasions. This is the best variety of NPCs to win at the least one medal at a Paralympic Winter Games, beating the earlier excessive of 25 from the Lillehammer 1994 Paralympic Winter Games 

Eighteen NPCs gained gold medals a joint file excessive, equalling the file set at PyeongChang 2018. 

Best Games ever for Italy 

Host nation Italy loved their greatest ever Paralympic Winter Games successful 16 medals.  Italy’s earlier highest variety of medal wins was 13 at Lillehammer 1994. Italy’s tally included a file seven gold medals, beating the earlier highest variety of three gold medals type Innsbruck 1988, Nagano 1988 and Salt Lake City 2002. 

Biggest Para ice hockey crowd 

During the Games, the file for the largest ever Para ice hockey crowd was damaged not simply as soon as however twice. The file first fell on the primary Saturday of the Games when 8,992 packed into the Santagiulia Arena in Milan to observe the Group A match between Italy and USA.  The earlier excessive hockey crowd for a Paralympic Winter Games was 8,462 set for the Salt Lake City 2002 gold medal match. 

Sunday’s gold medal match between USA and Canada is ready to draw a bumper 11,000 crowd. 

Historic first Paralympic winter medal for Brazil 

Thanks to Christian Ribera within the cross-country dash, Brazil gained its first ever medal – a silver – on the Paralympic Winter Games. Ribera made his Paralympic debut as a 15-year-old at PyeongChang 2018. 

Video views surpass Paris 2024 

By Saturday (14 March), there had been greater than 414 million views of video content material on the @Paralympics YouTube channel since competitors started on 4 March. This quantity is 712.47 per cent greater than the full variety of video views for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and is 67.05 per cent larger than the entire of 2024, which was beforehand a file yr for the IPC’s channel. 

Most widespread world broadcast protection 

Milano Cortina 2026 was probably the most extensively broadcast Paralympic Winter Games in historical past with 20 Media Rights Holders broadcasting the Games to a file 126 international locations on their linear free-to-air and Pay TV channels, and streaming, digital, social and audio platforms. In the remaining international locations, the worldwide stream shall be obtainable on the official Games digital platforms.