Verona ceremony looks to lift Paralympic flame above world's fractures

VERONA, Italy, March 6 : Less than two weeks after bidding goodbye to the Winter Olympics, Verona's majestic Roman amphitheatre hosts the Paralympic Games opening ceremony on Friday, against a dramatically altered global backdrop.

The message of diversity and inclusion that the inaugural event of the 50th Paralympics aims to project must contend with absences tied to the protests against the choice to allow Russian and Belarusian flags on the field of play, as well as to air‑travel chaos caused by the U.S.–Israeli war with Iran.

Unable to travel safely due to the conflict, two-time Paralympian Aboulfazl Khatibi Mianaei and Iran's sole athlete would not take part in the Milano Cortina Games, the International Paralympic Committee said on Friday.

Dubbed "Life in Motion", the ceremony is intended as a tribute to life as transformation and will feature performances by former The Police drummer Stewart Copeland, rising Italian-Malian soul singer Mimi Caruso and DJ Miky Bionic, who plays his music with a bionic myoelectric hand.

Planes flown by acrobatic pilots, including some who use wheelchairs, will streak green, blue and red - the International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) colours - over the ceremony.

"Attending the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympics will be a life-changing experience," IPC President Andrew Parsons said.

ABSENCES

Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland have joined Ukraine in the boycott of Friday's parade to show solidarity with Kyiv following Russia's 2022 invasion, IPC's Chief Communications Officer Craig Spence said on Thursday.

Canada, Great Britain, Germany and France will be absent instead for "performance reasons", he added.

Germany has said its athletes' absence is also an expression of