Paralympics Power Partner ROI
The Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games get underway on March 6th through March 15th, with new sponsors such as Uber joining longstanding partners such as Allianz, all ready to ride the momentum of Paris 2024.
Coming off the 2024 Paralympic Summer Games in Paris, the movement is on a high. A record 225 Media Rights Holders covered the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the most ever, with Nielsen Sports research showing that 736.3 million hours of dedicated live coverage were consumed by viewers, 83 per cent more than Tokyo 2020. Such widespread coverage had a profound impact on TV viewers, particularly on those who identified as non-Paralympic-sport fans before the event.
Nielsen Sport's research also found the Paralympic Games is now one of the world's most widely recognised sport events. In a post-Paris study, 80 per cent of those surveyed said they were aware of the Paralympics, with only the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup enjoying greater awareness. The breadth of popularity of the Paralympic Games is now greater than many other sport events such as the Rugby World Cup, Super Bowl, and World Athletics Championships.
This awareness and recognition are benefiting sponsors who are lacing up for Milano 2026.
Leading the way are brands such as Airbnb, which have continued to leverage their sponsorship to ensure that more rental units offer accessibility that competitors and spectators alike may require. In Paris, Airbnb reported adding 1,000 accessible listings to its inventory. This approach has been continued in Milan and is a key feature of their partnership. The process is for hosts to leverage the Verified Accessibility Features on Listings, which Airbnb allows hosts to declare specific accessibility elements, including:
1. Step-free access (entrance, bedrooms, bathrooms)
2. Guest entrance and parking wider than 32 inches
3. Toilet grab bars and step-free showers
4. Ceiling/mobile hoist capabilities
Airbnb's accessibility work grew in part out of its acquisition of Accomable, a startup focused on disability-friendly travel listings. That legacy underpins the platform's ongoing accessibility features today, not only filters but also a verification requirement and a multi-feature tagging system.
Uber is a new sponsor of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, where they will work with a record 5,000 local drivers to support transportation across a geographically dispersed Games. Uber wants to help fans leverage technology for safe, convenient and reliable travel. Uber will use its global mobility platform to enhance Game-Time operations by dynamically routing drivers around road closures and venue restrictions in-app. Safety Infrastructure: Activation of Uber's global safety protocols, including 24/7 support and coordination with Milano Cortina 2026 in case of emergencies. Paralympic Venues: Step-by-step, photo-guided pick-up and drop-off instructions within the Uber app for every site.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, said: "Milano Cortina 2026 is one of the most ambitious Olympic and Paralympic events ever staged, and we're proud to play a key role in supporting the transport network. Our goal is to connect every major hub and venue across the 22,000-square-kilometre Games area through safe, reliable, and efficient transportation. We look forward to keeping visitors and locals moving throughout the Games and leaving a lasting legacy of better-connected, tech-enabled transport across Northern Italy."
Allianz is celebrating 20 years of partnership with the International Paralympic Committee. They are the Official Insurer of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements through 2032, Presenting Partner of the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Torch Relay, and Co-creating educational "Sport Explainer" content with the IPC. This is a long-term partnership that showcases their brand equity in action, as the insurance business is all about trust. At the same time, the Paralympics are all about trusting yourself, your coaches, and your teammates, making for a strategic relationship.
Allianz measures ROI through completion rates and engagement with explainer content, brand trust and consideration tracking, Torch Relay visibility and earned media, and internal employee engagement tied to activation.
In terms of driving the Paralympic brand, there is much excitement around the producers behind the Emmy-winning documentary Rising Phoenix, Harder Than You Think (HTYT), who are partnering with Milano Cortina 2026 to produce official long-form Paralympic content.
Rising Phoenix was released on Netflix in 2020 and was produced by Harder Than You Think. The documentary traced the Paralympics from their post-war roots at Stoke Mandeville to one of the world's most powerful sporting platforms. It featured athletes like Tatyana McFadden, Jonnie Peacock and Bebe Vio not as symbols, but as elite competitors redefining excellence. It won a Sports Emmy and, more importantly, it moved the Paralympics from inspirational sideline to high-performance centre stage.
Now the same producers are partnering with Milano Cortina 2026 to help shape the official long-form storytelling around the Paralympic Winter Games. By working with the team that already understands how to frame resilience, performance and human potential without reducing athletes to clichés, the Games gain a creative engine that can travel far beyond Italy.
For sponsors, this positioning changes the equation. When your brand is associated with documentary storytelling that wins awards, streams globally and shapes culture, you are no longer buying exposure. You are aligning with meaning. Long-form content delivers deeper emotional engagement, a longer shelf life, and earned media that outlasts the closing ceremony. In a sponsorship landscape crowded with logos and impressions, this is differentiation. Milano 2026 is not just offering signage. It offers proximity to a story people remember.
Globally, the Paralympics and their partners are about to take the stage once again to demonstrate the power of their athletes and the impact of their partnerships.