Happy New Year from IPC President Andrew Parsons

Happy new Paralympic Year! 

I’m so excited for Milano Cortina 2026 but before I look ahead to March’s Paralympic Winter Games, I want to highlight some key achievements from last year. 

Thanks to grant funding from the Toyota Mobility Foundation, 2025 marked the launch of Sport for Mobility, the IPC’s biggest ever programme of development work. 

Within Sport for Mobility’s first 12 months, the IPC launched 14 game-changing initiatives that will benefit all IPC member organisations and are already delivering impressive results. Here are two such examples:  

Four of the 10 athletes who received Competition Support Grants to attend the World Para Athletics Championships won medals. This included Guillaume Junior Atangana who became the first refugee athlete in any sport to win a world title. 

Twenty retiring or retried Paralympians are also currently enrolled in our Para Athlete Professionals course. Over the next 12 months, the aim is to equip these Paralympians with the tools, knowledge, and platforms they need to be confident, capable leaders away from the field of play. The second year of Sport for Mobility will deliver even more outstanding results. 

Staying with athletes, the fourth edition of the IPC Athlete Forum took place in June. Seventy athlete representatives from over 50 countries attended and took part in meaningful discussions on key topics shaping the future of the Paralympic Movement. 

The first day of the Forum coincided with the inauguration of the IPC Campus in Bonn, a major landmark in the IPC’s history. It was fantastic to celebrate together with many of the people and organisations who have done so much to provide the IPC with one of the most accessible offices in Germany. 

In September, the IPC launched its first Impact Strategy. 

To truly deliver on the IPC’s vision to make for an inclusive world through Para sport, we need to articulate and expand on the impact we have in advancing social change, which is where the Impact Strategy comes in. 

Being able to better measure and demonstrate the impact of our activities, we will be able to further support our members and our athletes. By partnering with like-minded organisations and institutions, the IPC will advocate for and work towards focusing global attention on systemic changes required for disability inclusion. 

I was absolutely overjoyed to be re-elected for a third term as IPC President at the 22nd IPC General Assembly and I would like to thank IPC members for placing their trust in me and the newly elected Governing Board. It is the greatest honour of my life to serve this Movement and its athletes. In my final term I hope to finish some things that started in 2017 when I was first elected, build on my existing strong relationship with the IOC to take our partnership to a new level, and initiate a few other projects that will propel the Paralympic Movement forward. 

Looking back, the IPC achieved a lot in 2025, but we will achieve even more this year, especially with the 50th anniversary since the first Paralympic Winter Games. 

I am confident Milano Cortina 2026 will be the greatest Paralympic Winter Games yet in terms of sport performance. China raised the bar at Beijing 2022, and it will be great to see how other countries react at Milano Cortina 2026.

The Games are already transforming Italy and authorities there are doing a tremendous job using the event to accelerate their own inclusion initiatives - further proof that Change Starts with Sport. 

For the Games to be a success, we need the Italian public to come out in force and support the athletes. Feedback from Paris 2024 was that competing in front of packed crowds was amazing for the athletes and I’m sure Italians will want to go one step further with the atmosphere they create on home ice and snow. 

For those planning to attend, I promise you a life-changing experience. The sport will be incredible, the venues the most beautiful ever, and the performances of athletes will change your attitudes towards persons with disabilities. 

From everyone at the IPC, I wish you all a happy, peaceful and prosperous 2026.