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 1.96sec 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 among 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 in effect since sanctions were applied first in 2018 over the Russian doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games then in 2022 over the invasion of Ukraine. That ban was overturned by a vote at the general assembly of the International Paralympic Committee last September and, after a successful appeal by Russia at the court of arbitration for sport last year, the IPC was asked to send “bipartite” invitations to six Russian athletes who would have qualified for the Games under ordinary circumstances. Voronchikhina was one of those names, alongside her fellow alpine skier Aleksey Bugaev, two snowboarders and two cross-country skiers.
For Great Britain, meanwhile, the wait for a medal will extend into a fourth day as key ParalympicsGB hopes came up narrowly short. Britain’s sole gold medallist at the Beijing Games of 2022, Neil Simpson, finished fourth as he attempted to retain his title in the men’s visually impaired super G in the morning. With gold and silver claimed by Johannes Aigner of Austria and Italy’s Giacomo Bertagnolli, Simpson was beaten for third place by Kalle Eriksson of Canada, who finished more than a second faster than the Scot.
Simpson, who has traditionally partnered with brother Andrew as his guide, raced with Rob Poth after a late change. Simpson said the race was ultimately decided by a “couple of mistakes” which he would assess ahead of resuming competition in the alpine combined event on Tuesday.
“There was some good skiing but, unfortunately, a couple of mistakes, so something to work on,” Simpson said. “I gave it my best shot, unfortunately it wasn’t to be, but it’s something that we need to use to learn for tomorrow and then obviously going into the GS and slalom after that.”
There was also heartbreaking defeat by the narrowest of margins for the mixed doubles curling pair Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean as they failed to qualify for the semi-finals after losing to Italy in a tie-break end. A disastrous start had left the British duo 10-4 down after six ends, before some incredible draws, from Kean in particular, registered six points without reply to pull even at the end of regulation play. Italy had the hammer in the tiebreak but a matter of millimetres prevented Britain from removing the solitary stone that gave the hosts victory.
Butterfield could be heard being self-critical of her performance during play. “We started shockingly in that game,” she said. “We really did. We weren’t ourselves. But we got to the half-time and we said let’s show them what we can do, at least. We left it all out there. We gave it absolutely everything and we just fell short at the end. It hurts and we’re really sorry. The one thing I would say is I’m really proud of him and I’m proud of us.”
