Italy to double record at Paralympics in Milan Cortina 2026
Friday, March 13, 2026 will remain engraved in the history of Italian sports as far as the Winter Paralympics are concerned. With an unstoppable progression on its home slopes, the Italian expedition reached 14 total medals at the Milan Cortina 2026 Paralympic Games, officially knocking down the historical record that had held since the 1994 Lillehammer Games. What until a few hours ago was an ambitious goal has become a reality, turning this home edition into the most successful ever for the blue colors in the winter reviews.
The symbolic protagonist of this record was René De Silvestro, who with his triumph in the men’s giant slalom sitting signed the’eleventh medal for Paralympic alpine skiing, bringing Italy to surpass the 13 podiums achieved thirty-two years ago in Norway. De Silvestro’s victory, however, was not an isolated success, but the culmination of a frenetic and triumphant day that saw the Hymn of Mameli resound repeatedly among the Alpine peaks, confirming the exponential growth of the national Paralympic movement.
Incredible was the pace of success in snowboarding, where Jacopo Luchini and Emanuel Perathoner dominated their respective categories in the banked slalom. These two golds, coming in quick succession, allowed Italy to pull off a feat within a feat: winning three gold medals in a single afternoon. This is an impressive statistic when one considers that three golds represented, until this edition, the all-time maximum of victories achieved by Italy in the entire span of a single Winter Paralympics.
The current medal count of 6 golds, 7 silvers and one bronze reflects a dominance ranging from the technical disciplines of alpine skiing to pure speed on the board. This extraordinary achievement comes just weeks after the records already set by fellow Olympians, marking an absolute moment of grace for Italian winter sport. The Milan Cortina 2026 expedition not only updated the statistics, but demonstrated the ability of the Italian athletes to turn the pressure of competing at home into a legendary competitive boost.
