By GRAHAM DUNBAR, Associated Press Sports Writer
GENEVA (AP) — Three skiers from Russia and six from Belarus — including former Olympic and world champions — were approved Wednesday to compete in qualifying events for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games in February.
Their return after exclusion during the full military invasion of Ukraine could be within days at Davos in Switzerland. Former world junior cross-country ski champion Savelii Korostelev posted “debut this weekend” on his social media channels.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said it cleared the applications of the nine to get neutral athlete status and return to competitions for the first time since February 2022.
FIS did not state if it rejected some applications, or how many, though the Russian ski federation told state news agency TASS six of its athletes had asked for neutral status.
A further level of International Olympic Committee vetting must be passed before any qualified athlete can be invited to the Winter Games that open Feb. 6. IOC guidelines to sports bodies have kept Russian athletes excluded from team events in a system enforced for the Paris Summer Games last year.
Athletes who want to compete as neutral individuals without any symbols of national identity must not have publicly supported the war and not have ties to military or state security agencies.
Title-winning athletes
Freestyle skier Hanna Huskova took gold in women’s aerials for Belarus at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and silver four years later in Beijing.
Anastasia Tatalina was a Big Air world champion for Russia in 2021, and was fourth in freeski slopestyle at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. She also competed in Pyeongchang.
Russian cross-country skiers Korostelev and Dariya Nepryaeva also got neutral status ahead of World Cup races this weekend at Davos.
Both won world junior titles on Feb. 25, 2022 — one day after the war started — racing in Norway. Days earlier, Nepryaeva’s older sister Natalya left the Beijing Winter Games with gold, silver and bronze medals in cross-country skiing.
Court ruling cleared Russian path
The Russian ski federation and athletes won a ruling last week at the Court of Arbitration for Sport forcing FIS to start processing applications for neutral status
Russian athletes and team officials could face challenges getting visas to enter some countries that host qualifying events on the World Cup circuits in Alpine, cross-country and freestyle skiing, and snowboarding.
FIS said the approved athletes can compete “provided that they formally accept the conditions associated with the AIN status,” citing the IOC’s French acronym for Individual Neutral Athlete.
The ski and snowboard governing body said more decisions on neutral athletes will be made in “upcoming days and weeks.”
The eventual group of Russian athletes competing in Italy in February is likely to be fewer than 20 — a steep drop from more than 200 that went to the Beijing Winter Games, where they won 32 medals including five gold.
