Visa and Milano Cortina 2026 to support fan participation, donating over 4000 tickets

Visa, Official Payment Technology Partner of the  Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and a global leader in digital payments, alongside the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 announce an initiative to support spectator participation at the Paralympic Winter Games.

The initiative includes a donation for the purchase of over 4,000 tickets to be distributed to fans in Milan and in Cortina, enabling the participation in the competitions scheduled in both areas during the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games. Milan will host the eight-team Para ice hockey competition, while Cortina will stage the hotly contested medal events in Para alpine skiing, Para snowboard and wheelchair curling.

“The Paralympic Winter Games are much more than a high-performance sport event: they are an invitation to look beyond the results and embrace the values of sport, drawing inspiration from the courage of the athletes,” explains Stefano M. Stoppani, Country Manager of Visa Italia.

“With this initiative, we are renewing our commitment to the Paralympic movement and the host communities, helping to make the Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 an even more open, participatory, and accessible event.”

Diana Bianchedi, Chief Strategy, Planning and Legacy Officer, Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026, said, “The Paralympics have a special soul: they represent that half of the medal necessary for the message of resilience to reach people's hearts and convey the most powerful value: the absence of limits.

“With Visa, we have given concrete form to the word 'together,' creating cross-cutting and tangible projects. This confirms the excellence of a partner that has embraced the values that Milano Cortina 2026 aims to leave as a legacy. This donation has immense value: it unites our territories and will allow everyone to be moved by Paralympic athletes, champions of both sport and life. We can't wait for it to begin.”

Thanks to this initiative, fans and visitors will have the opportunity to watch the Paralympic Winter Games live and experience something that goes beyond the sporting event itself.

Visa and the Paralympic Movement

Visa has been the IPC's first global partner since 2003 and has been supporting the growth and visibility of Paralympic sport at national and international level for over 20 years.

Part of this commitment is embodied in Team Visa, a program that since 2000 has supported more than 700 Paralympic and Olympic athletes, selected on the basis of their sporting achievements, their commitment to the community, and their adherence to Visa's core values.

In the coming weeks, the Italian champions who will represent Team Visa at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games are Giacomo Bertagnolli and René De Silvestro, who will be one of the flag bearers.

They will be joined by the international team composed of Radek Zelinka (Para ice hockey), Anna-Lena Forster (Para alpine skiing), Arthur Bauchet (Para alpine skiing), Oksana Masters (Para cross-country skiing and Para biathlon), and Nicolás Bisquertt (Para alpine skiing).