In the wake of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s resignation on July 21 throwing the government into a new chapter of political turmoil, International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Andrew Parsons remains bullish on the success of the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
“Apart from the political situation in Italy, there is always something happening there and we are working closely with the Italian Paralympic Committee,” Parsons tells Around the Rings in a phone interview earlier this week. “One good, important factor is the development of the Paralympic Movement in Italy over recent years.
“There is exponential growth and this is reflected in more and better athletes, and more medals won by Italian athletes.”
Parsons attributes a large part of that success to the work and dedication of IPC Governing Board member and Italian Paralympic Committee President Luca Pancalli, who had led the organization since 2000.
“This all has to do with the leadership of the NPC and Luca Pancalli, who I’m very happy to have on our board, and his vision of coming up with the best ecosystem for the Italian Paralympic Movement for the athletes,” Parsons said, about the former Paralympics swimmer, who won 15 Paralympics medals, including eight gold, between 1984 and 1996.
“He has implemented a lot of changes in the ecosystems in terms of the national federations and how they operate in Italy and now it is paying off,” Parsons continues.
“You see Italy wining more medals in basically every sport and you see these results on the Paralympics medal table.”
At the Beijing 2022 Paralympics, Italy finished tied for 8th in the total medal count, with seven medals alongside Norway and Japan. It was a step up from PyeongChang 2018, at which Italian Paralympians won five medals, including two gold.
Just 23, visually impaired alpine skier Giacomo Bertagnolli won two gold and two silver medals at the Beijing Games. He duplicated his double gold performance from PyeongChang 2018.
Rene de Silvestro, 25, who is a local Cortina skier residing in nearby San Vito di Cadore, raced to a silver and bronze medal. Both ski racers would appear to be serious medal threats on home snow in 2026.
Additionally, Parsons and the IPC will be in a somewhat different position come Milano Cortina 2026, in terms of its larger role and the specific sports that it governs. Last month, the IPC agreed to transfer its role as an international federation overseeing and governing the snow sports of Para Alpine skiing, Para cross-country skiing and Para snowboard to the International Ski Federation (FIS) moving forward.
The two organizations intend to cooperate throughout the summer months to ensure a smooth transition of leadership ahead of next winter’s competition season.
“I think it’s a very exciting time for the Paralympics movement in Italy and on the winter side it will be the first edition of the Games where FIS will be the international federation for the snow sports,” Parsons said. “This changes a little bit our participation in the Games – we are more the umbrella organization as we will not be the IF for these sports.
“We are also not the IF for curling, but we are still the IF for Para ice hockey and we’ll see where we are going to be for that in Milano Cortina 2026.
Of course, this dramatically changes our activities and let’s say our approach to the winter Paralympics,” Parsons said.
It would seem, that all would be somewhat dependent and potentially affected adversely, perhaps pertaining to budgets and other mitigating factors, in terms of a new prime minister and a restructured Italian government’s emphasis and support of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“It’s an exciting time, but soon I think we will have some aspects with the political situation in Italy,” Parsons said.
The XIV Paralympic Winter Games are scheduled for March 6 - 15, 2026 in Milan and Cortina, with the opening ceremony to take place in Verona.
Hopefully, the Italian government will have matters sorted out by then.
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