Russian President Vladimir Putin, second left, poses for a photo with Russian Paralympic athletes Aleksei Churkin, front left, who won a silver medal in shot put, and Evgeniia Galaktionova, front right, who won a bronze medal in javelin throw, after an awarding ceremony for the Russian Paralympic Committee's medalists of the Paris 2024 Paralympics in Moscow, Russia. (AP)

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, March 5 (AP): The Winter Paralympics come to Milan Cortina to celebrate their 50th anniversary, with China looking to extend its dominance as a Paralympic powerhouse and Ukraine and other nations boycotting the opening ceremony over the return of the Russian flag and anthem.

The Games will officially kick off on Friday amid the tensions of the war in the Middle East, which prompted travel difficulties for some of the nations coming to Italy because of widespread flight disruptions.

Iran was due to have one skier at the Milan Cortina. Wheelchair curling kick-started the competition schedule.

The Paralympic Games are back in Italy 20 years after Torino 2006. It will be the 14th edition of the Winter Paralympics since the inaugural edition in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, in 1976. Nearly 200 athletes competed in two sports at the time. Some 660 athletes will participate across the six sports in Italy from Friday through March 15.

The U.S. is sending a 72-member squad to Italy, compared to the 67-member roster it took to Beijing 2022. This year’s delegation includes Oksana Masters, the most decorated American Winter Paralympian, and 16-year-old Para alpine skier Meg Gustafson.

Russian athletes will compete under their own flag at the Paralympics for the first time in more than a decade, and the country’s national anthem could be played for gold medalists for the first time on the stage of a major global sporting event since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The Russian flag hasn’t been flown at the Paralympics since the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, while the national anthem has not been heard at any Olympics or Paralympics since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games.

It could be the first time the anthem is played on the stage of any major global sporting event in four years.

Ukraine was the first to announce that it was planning to boycott the opening ceremony because of Russia, and seven other nations were planning not to attend because of political reasons: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, and the Netherlands.

Some other nations are not attending the opening ceremony to rest their athletes ahead of their competitions, not as a boycott.

Russian athletes were initially banned because of a state-sponsored doping program, and the sanctions have continued since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Ukraine’s sports minister Matvii Bidnyi had said in a social media post that the nation will "not take part in any other official Paralympic events.”

Russian athletes and athletes from Russia’s close ally, Belarus, were awarded slots by the International Paralympic Committee on Feb. 17.

Russian and Belarusian athletes had been competing as individual neutral athletes without their flag, anthem, or team colors.

The IPC said most teams were already in Europe for training, but it was helping out others with travel amid the war in the Middle East.

The Milan Cortina Games will give China the chance to establish itself as the nation to beat in both the Summer Paralympics and Winter Paralympics.

The Chinese topped the medal count in the Summer Paralympics every time since 2004, and four years ago won the Winter Games for the first time with a record-setting performance that included 18 gold medals, 20 silver, and 23 bronze.

China had more than 90 Paralympic athletes competing at its home Games in 2022, the most ever by any nation, and is sending another large delegation to Italy this time. It will have 70 athletes competing in Italy, making its largest-ever overseas delegation.