German athletes investigated over podium protest during Russian anthem

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Cortina: The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is investigating a protest by German athletes during a medal ceremony after a Russian athlete won gold.

Anastasiia Bagiian and guide Sergei Siniakin had won the women’s vision impaired cross-country skiing sprint classic, the country’s fourth gold medal of these Games.

Silver medallists Linn Kazmaier and guide Florian Baumann left some room to the Russian athletes.

During the medal ceremony, when the Russian anthem began playing, German silver medallists Linn Kazmaier and her guide Florian Baumann appeared to turn their backs on the Russian winners and kept their hats on while the anthem played.

“The medal ceremony felt completely strange,” Kazmaier said to Germany’s public broadcasting network ARD afterwards.

“I don’t know these people. Maybe they don’t support the system in Russia either. Maybe they are really nice people who we could actually be friends with. But it’s such a shame that politics overshadows everything. So we decided to keep our hats on and not turn towards the flags because we don’t support that.”

Anastasiia Bagiian and guide Sergei Siniakin celebrate their second gold medal the day after the protest on Wednesday.

To a different German outlet, ZDF, Baumann said, “Four years ago in Beijing, we had a great exchange with the Ukrainians. We wanted to show solidarity with them.

“This is not about the Russian athletes. It is also difficult for many of them right now, but I simply do not think it is right that the [International Paralympic Committee] has decided that Russia can compete here under its own flag, with its own anthem and with a full band, while the Ukrainians are also here.”

Australia’s Taryn Dickens and guide Lynn Maree Cullen competed in the same event, placing 13th. Dickens withdrew from the 10km race on Wednesday to manage her load for the rest of the week, which Bagiian and Siniakin also won.

The IPC revealed it was investigating the protest on Wednesday, with its chief brand and communications officer Craig Spence saying, “With Germany, we are aware of the situation, gathering evidence and analysing it.”

These Games are the first time since 2014 that Russian athletes have been allowed to compete under their own flag, following a ban in 2016 due to a state-sponsored doping program and a separate ban enforced in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The 2026 Paralympics is also the first time since 2016 that the Russian anthem has been played during a medal ceremony. Russia was permitted to enter six athletes in these Games as bipartite athletes – usually awarded to countries that are underrepresented in winter sports and could not qualify through usual pathways. Australia have two bipartite athletes in the Nordic events.

Varvara Voronchikhina won Russia first Paralympic medal of the 2026 Games.

The Russian anthem played for the first time on Monday when Varvara Voronchikhina won the women’s super-G standing race.

“We knew that once the bipartite had been awarded, we knew there was a good chance that there would be a Russian gold medal at these Games,” Spence said after Voronchikhina’s win.

“I watched the medal ceremony on the stream, and I saw a medal ceremony like any other and very well respected by the athletes and the crowd. I think the crowd were receptive to the medal win. They just saw an athlete. I think that’s what’s really important here. They just saw an athlete at a sporting event winning a gold medal.”

Meanwhile, the National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine accused the IPC of “unacceptable discrimination” saying its team had never experienced such “openly negative manifestations and obstacles” at 30 consecutive Summer and Winter Paralympic Games.

A statement issued by the committee, said Ukrainian flags had been removed from the team’s residence, that they had been banned from having team meetings inside their residential building and that Ukrainian flags and scarves had been confiscated from spectators.

Ukrainian medal winner Oleksandra Kononova.

The committee also stated that athlete Oleksandra Kononova had been forced to remove earrings that read “stop war” before being awarded her gold medal in the para-biathlon women’s sprint earlier in the week.

“The International Paralympic Committee has not only allowed blood-stained Russian and Belarusian flags, but also tries to ban Ukrainian symbolism and even yellow-blue colours,” the statement read.

In response, Spence said Ukraine had not provided feedback to the IPC in morning meetings, nor through formal or informal lines in the village.

“I can only respond on the earring today. What happened with the earrings, we realised that she was going to the podium, that she was wearing earrings that said ‘Stop War’. A member of staff noticed these earrings, realised it would most likely breach our regulations, the rules that are in accordance with the rules received from the IPC for these Games. The situation was recognised and, for us, that was the end of the matter.”

This masthead has travelled to Cortina as a guest of Paralympics Australia.

The Winter Paralympic Games is broadcast on the Nine Network, 9Now and Stan Sport.