Russian athletes are not allowed to participate in FIS competitions. © APA/afp / ALBERTO PIZZOLI

Russian winter sports athletes remain excluded

Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be allowed to compete as neutral individual athletes in FIS qualification competitions for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, respectively. The Council of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) decided this at a meeting.

21 October 2025

From: dpa

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allows athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete as individual neutral athletes, as it did at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, but leaves it up to the international federations of the individual sports to decide whether to apply this in their qualifying competitions. The FIS, the world governing body responsible for alpine skiing, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined, has now decided against it.

This means that only a small number of athletes from both countries are likely to participate in the Olympic Games next February. The International Skating Union allows Russians to compete in figure skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating under certain conditions for the qualifying competitions. The situation is similar in ski mountaineering. However, the world governing bodies for bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge have prohibited them from competing in the Olympic ice track in Cortina. According to the world governing body, neutral athletes are also prohibited from participating in biathlon. Russia and Belarus are also barred from participating in the team events.

Decision also applies to Paralympics

The backdrop for the sanctions against Russia and Belarus is the war of aggression against Ukraine, which has been going on for more than three years. The IOC also suspended Russia's Olympic Committee for accepting the four annexed Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhia. The IOC considered this a violation of the Olympic Charter.

Alexander Bolshunov and his team will be absent from the Olympics. © ANSA / JEON HEON-KYUN

The International Paralympic Committee lifted the sanctions at the end of September and decided at a general assembly that Russia's disabled athletes would be allowed to compete under their own flag at the Paralympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in March 2026. However, the final decision on admission rests with the world federations responsible for the sports.