FIS blocks Russians and Belarusians from 2026 Olympic ski qualifiers

OBERHOFEN, Switzerland (AP) — The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) says its council has voted against allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete in qualifying events for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.

The decision, taken Tuesday by the FIS Council, effectively blocks Russian and Belarusian skiers and snowboarders from dozens of Olympic qualifying competitions. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allows athletes from those countries to compete as "Individual Neutral Athletes," but leaves it to each sport’s international federation to decide whether to adopt that system for qualifiers. FIS, which has barred the Russia and Belarus national teams since 2022, chose not to allow neutral athletes in its events. FIS said the decision also applies to Paralympic events it oversees.

Russia’s national ski association expressed "deep disappointment" and called the vote discriminatory, saying it would explore all legal avenues to ensure athletes are not penalized for political circumstances beyond their control.

Potential friction

The ruling comes four days before the first Alpine skiing World Cup race of the season, a women’s giant slalom in Austria. Russia is not a major force in Alpine, but it is traditionally strong in cross-country skiing and has won medals in snowboard slalom, ski jumping and freestyle skiing. Allowing neutral Russians could have created tensions with the largely northern European hosts of many FIS World Cup events. In 2022, after initially permitting Russian participation without flag or anthem, FIS reversed course and excluded Russians when Norway vowed to bar them from events it hosted.

How other winter sports have handled Russia

FIS is the largest of the nine winter-sport federations on the Olympic program, and its events account for nearly half of the medals at Milan-Cortina. Without Russians in FIS sports, the number of IOC-designated "neutral athletes" at the Games could be very small, depending on other sports’ qualifiers.

So far, only ice skating and the new Olympic sport of ski mountaineering have opened routes for Russians to qualify as neutrals. Hockey and biathlon still bar Russian athletes, while bobsled and skeleton may soon admit them after an appeals tribunal ordered the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation to allow competitors who meet IOC neutral criteria. Two Russian figure skaters and one Belarusian have already qualified as neutrals, and more may emerge in speedskating. One Russian has qualified a quota spot in ski mountaineering, currently the only confirmed neutral in a snow sport.

In contrast, at the 2022 Winter Olympics there were 206 athletes on the Russian Olympic Committee team and 24 on the Belarus team.