2014 Winter Paralympics

XI Paralympic Winter Games

Host city	Sochi, Russia
Motto	Hot. Cool. Yours. (Russian: Жаркие. Зимние. Твои.)
Nations	45
Athletes	550
Events	72 in 5 sports
Opening	7 March
Closing	16 March
Opened by	President Vladimir Putin
Cauldron	Sergey Shilov Olesya Vladykina
Stadium	Fisht Olympic Stadium
Winter ← Vancouver 2010 PyeongChang 2018 → Summer ← London 2012 Rio 2016 → 2014 Winter Olympics

Part of a series on
2014 Winter Paralympics
Bid process Venues Mascots Torch relay Opening ceremony (flag bearers) Chronological summary Medal table (medalists) Closing ceremony (flag bearers) Olympics (medal table) IPC RPC SOOC
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The 2014 Winter Paralympics (Russian: Зимние Паралимпийские игры 2014, romanized: Zimniye Paralimpiyskiye igry 2014), the 11th Paralympic Winter Games, and also more generally known as the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, were an international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), held in Sochi, Russia, from 7 to 16 March 2014. 45 National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) participated in the Games, which marked the first time Russia ever hosted the Paralympics. The Games featured 72 medal events in five sports, and saw the debut of snowboarding at the Winter Paralympics.^[1]

The lead-up to these Paralympics were met with concerns regarding Russia's military intervention in the nearby Crimean peninsula of Ukraine the month before the opening of the games. The head of Ukraine's NPC stated that it would pull its athletes if the situation escalated, while the United Kingdom and United States chose not to send governmental delegations to the Games. The crisis ultimately had no impact on athlete participation, but members of the Ukrainian team did stage symbolic protests of the crisis during the Games (including most notably, all but the country's flagbearer sitting out of the opening ceremony's parade of nations).

With 80 medals, 30 of them being gold, the host country of Russia won the most medals during these Games, and set a record for the most medals won by a single country during a single Winter Paralympic Games. Additionally, Russian skier Roman Petushkov won the most individual gold medals in Winter Paralympic history, with six golds across skiing and biathlon events.^[2] However, following the Games, the IPC discovered evidence that Russia's performance had been aided by a wider state-sponsored doping program. This resulted in restrictions on the participation of Russian athletes during subsequent Paralympics.