FIS receives significant Paralympic social media boost

The Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games generated exceptional digital interaction in terms of followers and engagements.

Across all social media platforms, FIS Para Snow Sports attracted 4,157 new followers during the 10 days of the event. That is more than three times the number of followers, 1,269, gained throughout the entirety of the 2024/25 season.

The greatest increase came on Instagram (3,086 new followers; 16.5%) followed by YouTube (10.6%) and Facebook (2.6%).

Excluding Chinese platforms, the Games achieved a total reach of 2.8 million and just over 76,000 engagements from 262 posts. Para Alpine Skiing was the top-performing discipline in both metrics, boasting a reach of over 950,000 and 24,800 engagements.

Para Cross-Country had a reach in excess of 600,000 with 20,200 engagements, while Para Snowboard generated a reach of 424,400 with 10,100 engagements.

Instagram led the way among the platforms, accounting for half of the 2.8m reach with 1.4m. Facebook added 1.1m with TikTok providing the other 300,000.

Instagram and Facebook album posts yielded the greatest interaction, delivering a reach of 32,700 by spotlighting event winners and compelling storylines. Facebook and Instagram reels contributed a further 32,000.

TikTok’s impact was reduced by Paralympic media rights restrictions limiting video content of winning runs and highlights. Despite that, TikTok reels generated a reach of 9,500 driven by original series, archival footage, and on-site moments.

Paralympics aid successful ‘I Love Snow’ campaign

The ‘I Love Snow’ campaign contained two original content series - ‘Through My Eyes’ and ‘A Special Letter’ - offering viewers an intimate look at the personal journeys and motivations of athletes across snow sport disciplines.

The 41 episodes of ‘Through My Eyes’ attracted close to 21,000 views on FIS TV with 555 hours watched and an average of one minute 35 seconds per view. It generated a reach of 6.5m (5m from Instagram) and just over 100,000 engagements at an engagement rate of 2.78%.

For ‘A Special Letter’, there were over 19,000 views of the 30 episodes with 231 hours watched at an average of 43 seconds per view. A reach of 4.5m (3.2m from Instagram) was achieved with 70,000 engagements at an engagement rate of 2.7%.

The most popular episode of ‘Through My Eyes’ featured Albanian Alpine star Lara Colturi and was viewed 2,178 times. A.J. Ginnis was the star of the most-watched ‘A Special Letter’ with just over 3,000 views. Around 45% of the interactions for both came from the United States.

The ‘Hidden Champions’ podcasts featuring top Paralympic athletes played their part in adding to the ‘I Love Snow’ success story. The podcasts centered around Para Alpine skier Adam Hall and Para Cross-Country star Vilde Nilsen attracted well over 1,000 views. The Para Snowboard Paralympic Behind the Scenes video was also viewed by a four-figure audience.

During the Paralympics, The ‘I Love Snow’ microsite had close to 110,000 page impressions with 27,500 unique users during the Games. The Daily Newsletter yielded 255 sign-ups with 62 (24%) of those new contacts. Its unique open rate of 58.4% compared well with the Winter Olympics (60%) and the FIS Snowsports/Inside FIS (37%) newsletters, and the average click rate of 5.5% actually exceeded the Olympics’ 4.9%.

China audience growth driven by behind-the-scenes content and local focus

In China, content was based around authentic storytelling and emotional connection related to local athletes. Behind-the-scenes content performed particularly well with Douyin enjoying a total reach of 1.38m from just five posts compared with 111,000 on Weibo (16 posts) and 98,000 on Red (eight posts).

Gold medals for Liu Zixu and Wang Chenyang helped spark strong engagement and reach in China. Wang’s highlights were the most popular ‘moments’ on Douyin (657,000 views and 13,000 likes) and Red (58,000 views, 8,000 likes).

Liu’s golden moment was the popular post on Weibo, generating 32,000 views. While the overall performance did not match that of the Winter Olympics, due to lower general awareness and athlete recognition, the figures obtained were more than satisfactory and showed the importance of identifiable athletes.