A 1st-century Roman amphitheater isn't the obvious venue for a Paralympic ceremony. The Arena di Verona has been standing for 2,000 years. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It seats 30,000 people. On Thursday night, it hosted one for the first time.

Six hundred and sixty-five athletes from 45 nations were scheduled to walk into the arena for the opening of the 2026 Winter Paralympics. Twenty-eight nations chose not to march. The ones who did carried their flags into the oldest functional outdoor arena in the world, lit by two cauldrons in three cities at once, for the 50th edition of the Winter Games.

Josh Pauls and Laurie Stephens Led Team USA In

Team USA entered behind two flag bearers who together hold 11 Paralympic medals and six Games appearances between them.

Josh Pauls is the most decorated sled hockey player in U.S. Paralympic history. Four-time champion, team captain, the centerpiece of a para ice hockey program that has won every gold medal since 2002. He carried the flag to open the Games his team intends to win again.

Laurie Stephens was voted by her teammates to carry the U.S. flag into her sixth and final Paralympics. Her first Games were Torino 2006, also in Italy. She won two golds there, the start of seven Paralympic medals across her career in para alpine skiing. Twenty years later, her teammates sent her back into Italy carrying the flag for the last time.

Two Cauldrons Lit at the Same Moment in Three Cities

The flame lighting at the 2026 Games was unlike anything in the 50-year history of the Winter Paralympics.

Italian wheelchair fencing champion Bebe Vio carried the flame into the arena in Verona. At the same moment, visually impaired alpine skier Gianmaria Dal Maistro lit a cauldron in Milan. Paralympian Francesca Porcellato lit a second cauldron in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Three people, three cities, two cauldrons, all simultaneously. In 50 editions of the Winter Games, it had not been done before.

The ceremony was themed "Life in Motion," drawing from the work of Leonardo da Vinci, sculptor Jago, and painter Emilio Isgrò. The dual lighting in Milan and Cortina fed live into the Verona ceremony as the fires rose.

Twenty-Eight Nations Stayed Off the Route

The boycott was bigger than most coverage predicted.

Before the ceremony, Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Finland had each announced they wouldn't march over the IPC's decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their national flags. That decision and the initial boycott announcements are covered in detail here. When the parade of nations ended Thursday, the total stood at 28 of the 55 competing nations. More than half the field did not march. It is the largest ceremony boycott in Paralympic history.

When the Russian delegation entered, four athletes in red uniforms under the Russian national flag, there were audible boos from the arena. The Russian flag had not appeared at a Paralympics since Sochi 2014.

The IPC's position hasn't moved. The athletes were admitted through a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling and will compete through March 15.

665 Athletes, 79 Events, 6 Sports

The 2026 Winter Paralympics are the largest in history by every measure: 665 athletes, 79 medal events, six sports spread across venues in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Milan, and Verona.

The first full day of competition is March 7. How to find the stream on Peacock and NBC is covered if you're working out where to watch.