Russian, Belarusian athletes to compete neutrally in 2026 Winter Olympics | Olympics News

Athletes will endure checks to show they don’t actively assist the battle in Ukraine or have hyperlinks with the military.

Russians will compete as impartial unbiased athletes and not using a nationwide flag or anthem on the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Video games, the Worldwide Olympic Committee has stated, sustaining the identical sanctions because the Paris Summer season Video games final yr.

The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee in October 2023 for recognising regional Olympic councils for Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine – Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia – following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, saying the transfer had violated the Olympic Constitution.

“We additionally spoke in regards to the Impartial Impartial Athletes (AINs). This will likely be nothing new,” IOC President Kirsty Coventry instructed a information convention. “The chief board will take the very same method that was performed in Paris (2024 Olympics). Nothing has modified.”

Russian and Belarusian athletes who attain qualifying instances will likely be first vetted for any hyperlinks to the Russian army or assist of the battle in Ukraine, each of which can exclude them.

Russian groups are banned from the Video games. Belarus has acted as a staging floor for the invasion of Ukraine.

A small variety of particular person Russian and Belarusian athletes have been allowed to participate as AINs within the Paris 2024 Summer season Olympics after first passing rigorous vetting by the IOC.

They competed with out the Russian or Belarusian flag and anthem. As a substitute, they took half as impartial athletes.

4 Russian determine skaters in males’s and ladies’s singles have been not too long ago authorised by the Worldwide Skating Union to attempt to qualify for the Video games, which begin on February 6, 2026 in Italy, as impartial athletes.