MAER met the Paralympic champions at the airport and at media facades all over Russia

The Russian Paralympians, who performed heroically at the Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, were welcomed that night at the capital's Vnukovo Airport. The MAER media holding organized a large-scale information campaign, posting greetings and words of support on media facades across the country.

Only six Russian athletes were allowed to participate in the Paralympics. In total, the Paralympians won eight gold, one silver and three bronze medals.

The first award was won by alpine skier Varvara Voronchikhina: on March 7, she took bronze in the downhill, and on March 9, she won gold in the supergiant. In honor of this, the Russian national anthem was played at the Games for the first time in 12 years. Voronchikhina won four medals in total.

Her colleague Alexey Bugaev brought Russia three more medals: gold and two bronze. It is noteworthy that he won twice at the Paralympics in Sochi — the last one with a flag and an anthem.

"To be honest, I didn't even expect that the support would be so powerful. It felt much stronger than in previous Games. It's really amazing. Many thanks to everyone who wrote, supported and believed in us, it is of great importance for an athlete. Thank you for these emotions, for sharing the joy of medals, anthem and flag with us. We really appreciate it," four—time Paralympic Games champion Alexey Bugaev shared his emotions.

Anastasia Bagiyan, a skier, became the most decorated of the Russians at the 2026 Paralympics - she took three gold medals at once. Skier Ivan Golubkov took two gold medals. Moreover, he could have claimed the third place, but he got the start time of the sprint race mixed up.
The MAER media holding shared these victories throughout Russia together with its partner, the Sport24 publication. The MAYOR also posted congratulations and words of gratitude to the Paralympians on the media facades, who returned the anthem and flag to the highest-level competitions. The words "The whole of Russia is proud!" and "Thank you for your character!" appeared on digital screens.

"This is a story where the numbers speak for themselves. The International Paralympic Committee invited only six athletes to the Games. They took the third place in the medal standings, passing only the national teams of China and the USA. But there were 70 Chinese and 68 Americans. Just crazy stats! Such victories unite the nation and prove that world sport is impossible without Russia! And we tried to make the successes of our Paralympians truly visible and tangible to people all over the country. We are glad that we were able to contribute and make these victories truly noticeable," said Konstantin Mayor, owner and CEO of the MAER media holding.