After the record-breaking Paralympics in Italy, the IPC president sees room for growth
In numbers, Milano Cortina 2026 was the biggest Winter Paralympic Games yet.
More than 600 athletes from 55 different national Paralympic committees competed in 79 medal events, spread across six different sports. More women than ever are competing in the Games.
And perhaps most importantly, more people than ever are watching those athletes compete.
“We had an incredible 650 million video views of those Games in 14 days,” said International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Andrew Parsons in an interview with CBC Sports'. Anastasia Bucsis. “This is more than the whole year of 2024 together, including Paris [Summer Paralympic] It's game time. It boggles the mind.”
It comes on the heels of a record-breaking 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris that smashed every metric the IPC tracks, including viewers, the number of people watching at home, and the number of people engaging with disabled content on social media.
But Parsons still sees a lot of room for growth, especially when it comes to raising the profile of the Winter Paralympics and its athletes.
“Where we see this movement going is that in 10 years, for the first time, people will enjoy the Paralympics as a sport,” said Parsons. “People will say, I want to go online, I want to see that wheelchair basketball or rugby deadline, I want to see that track athlete. They will know these athletes by their names. They will be household names in their countries.”
Adding more sports
Parsons would like to see more games on the winter schedule in 2030 and 2034.
There were 22 sports at the Paris Summer Paralympics in 2024, but only six at the Winter Games in Milano Cortina: Para alpine skiing, Para biathlon, Para-cross-country skiing, Para ice hockey, snowboarding and wheelchair curling.
A big gap comes to the ice. Parsons would like to see figure skating added in 2034, when the Games will be held in Salt Lake City.
“We are in early discussions [the International Skating Union]and some of our friends in other cities to host the future [see] how we can develop those sports in advance so that maybe we can have them in the Paralympics,” he said.
Another area Parsons would like to grow is the number of women competing in the Paralympics. While a record number of women competed in Milano Cortina (160), they only represented a little more than 26 percent of the total number of competitors.
This is another area where the Winter Paralympics lag behind – about 45 percent of the athletes at the Summer Paralympics in Paris were women, according to IPC figures.
Adds women's Para hockey
Parsons would like to see women's Para ice hockey added to the handicap program as early as 2030, which would help bring the Games closer to gender balance.
Women can compete in the Para hockey division now, but it is dominated by men. Canada has never had a woman on its Paralympic hockey team.
To get there, Parsons said the sport needs more countries to participate. There were six teams in the first world championship of this game, which was last year. That included a world team with athletes from several different countries.
“Obviously, hockey is a sport that everyone knows in Canada, in the US, you guys are very strong,” said Parsons. “So people will be looking for maybe a bronze medal in the first competition or something like that. But I think it's about creating more opportunities for women in winter sports.”
The president of the International Paralympic Committee shares his opinion on the next steps to add women's para ice hockey to the Paralympic Games.
Last fall, Parsons asked more countries to fund women's Para hockey, with the assurance that the sport would soon be on the Paralympic stage.
Hockey Canada does not sponsor women's Para hockey as a high performance program. The national sports body says it has the authority from the federal government to use national teams to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics, and women's Para hockey has not yet met those requirements.
“We continue to work closely with World Para Ice Hockey and the International Paralympic Committee as they navigate the path towards the inclusion of women's Para hockey in the Paralympic Games,” Hockey Canada spokesperson Jeremy Knight wrote in a statement to CBC Sports.
“However, while this representation continues, we continue to support [women’s Para Hockey of Canada, WPHC] in many ways, including the Hockey Canada Foundation giving the organization $150,000 this season and Hockey Canada providing the WPHC with more than $25,000 in equipment and team gear ahead of the recent Women's World Para Ice Hockey Championships.”
The 23-year-old joins Paralympic studio manager Allison Lang in a powerful interview where she shares her experience competing against Canada at the women's paralympic hockey world championships. Also, her thoughts on women's ice hockey not being included in the Paralympics.
Climate change and war are among the challenges
Although this year's Paralympics broke records, they did not come without challenges and controversies.
Calls have been made for the Paralympics, which usually follow the Olympics, to be held earlier in the season to avoid the warm and turbulent conditions that are becoming more common with a warming planet.
Global warming is a reality that society needs to face, Parsons admits.
“There are internal discussions in [International Olympic Committee],” Parsons said. “We're part of those conversations.”
Several countries also boycotted the opening and closing events of Milano Cortina 2026, after athletes from Russia and Belarus were allowed to compete in the Paralympics under their flags in several alpine sports.
The decision was taken by the IPC general meeting last fall, and drew criticism from the Canadian Paralympic Committee.
“I'd say it's probably one of the more emotional, emotional issues that have come to a major conference in the last few years,” CPC CEO Karen O'Neill told CBC Sports earlier this year.
'All In', follows 3-time Paralympic medalist Tyler Turner as he connects with elite athletes to test their game and prove that any sport can be for any body. Tune in to AMI-tv and AMI+, Thursdays at 8 pm Eastern, for All Insiders!
Throughout the scandal, Parsons stressed the need to separate the Paralympics from controversy and politics.
“What we have tried is that we focus on the athletes and what they do in the role of playing,” he said. “This has been a bit of a challenge in the process because the media and the governments of other countries are making political statements, which is within their right to make. What we are trying to do is protect the athlete's experience.”
Tensions are likely to flare up again ahead of Los Angeles in 2028, at the Paralympic Games under the shadow of the Trump administration.
But Parsons hopes LA28 can be a catalyst for change in the way people with disabilities are viewed.
“We understand that there are concerns about the current administration in the country, that diversity is not important in their plans,” he said. “But we see that as an opportunity. We clearly see that the Paralympics can be a change in the way diversity is viewed, understood and encouraged.”
