Russia flag raised and national anthem played after first gold at Winter Paralympics

The Russian national anthem has been played at the Paralympics for the first time since 2014 as the skier Varvara Voronchikhina claimed gold in the women’s super-G standing.

A tearful Voronchikhina received her medal on Monday afternoon, and the Russian flag was raised, after a dominant performance on the slopes of the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre. A watching crowd of international fans responded only with polite applause, but Voronchikhina’s success has already been celebrated by Russia’s sports minister.

Voronchikhina finished 1.96 seconds clear of the French racer Aurélie Richard in the giant slalom event. Richard’s silver medal was met with wild cheers from the stands. The 23-year-old Russian, meanwhile, said she had been moved by the sight of her national flags amongst the spectators.

“It’s really special for me because I can see my flag on my friends who arrived here,” she said. “Maybe now I can’t believe it, and I don’t understand what happened. Maybe a little bit later I [will] see my gold medal. It’s so special for me really.”

Russia’s sports minister, Mikhail Degtyarev, was quick to praise Voronchikhina on the social media platform Telegram. “Congratulations to Varvara Voronchikhina on Russia’s first gold medal in the super-G at the Milan-Cortina … the Russian anthem is playing”.

A ban on Russian participation had been effective since 2014 after sanctions were applied first in 2018 over the Russian doping scandal then in 2022 over the invasion of Ukraine. The latter ban was imposed, according to the IPC, not in direct response to the invasion but due to a technical breach of rules relating to the use of paralympic sport as military propaganda. That ban was overturned by a vote at the general assembly of the International Paralympic committee last September.

Participation by Russian athletes has been condemned by the National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine prior to the Games. “Russia is participating the Paralympic Games at the same time as Europe is preparing for military attack by Russia”, said the president of Ukraine’s NPC, Valeriy Shushkevych. “The Russian flag is a flag with blood. It should not go up, it should go down.”