Russia appeals Olympic exclusion to sports court CAS

The Russian Ski Association has filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) challenging the International Ski and Snowboard Federation’s (FIS) decision not to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to qualify and compete as Individual Neutral Athletes at the Milano/Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.

In a statement, CAS, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, confirmed it has received the appeal against FIS’s decision to refrain from facilitating participation for Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals at the 2026 Games. The appeal also references athletes who would compete in Paralympic events.

The move follows a similar appeal last week from the Russian luge federation. In that matter, CAS invalidated the part of the decision that imposed a blanket ban on Russian athletes who otherwise met the criteria to compete as neutral athletes, judging the effect disproportionate. However, the international luge federation’s broader ban on Russian participation in its events remains in place on stated safety grounds, so Russian athletes are still not being admitted to competitions.

FIS decided at a recent Council meeting to bar Russian and Belarusian participants from the Olympic competitions in its sports—most prominently cross-country skiing and alpine skiing—citing Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022. The Russian Ski Association’s appeal seeks to overturn or modify that decision ahead of Olympic qualification timelines for Milano–Cortina 2026.

The case now proceeds within CAS’s adjudication process, where timelines and potential provisional measures have not yet been detailed publicly.