The International Olympic Committee has confirmed Russia’s exclusion in all team sports for the Winter Games 2026 in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
“The recommendation of the IOC Executive from March 2023 regarding teams of athletes with a Russian passport remains”said the IOC with: “It is based on the fact that a group of neutral individual athletes cannot be seen as a team by definition.”
Luc Tardif, President of the IIH Hockey Association IIHF, had declared the Russian Olympic ban on final at the final press conference of the World Cup in Sweden and Denmark on Sunday. “We asked the IOC to make a decision because we have to tackle the organization of the game plan for the teams”said the 72-year-old: “And then we got the order that we should create the groups and the game plan without Russia.”
Since 2022, Russia has no longer been allowed to participate in the world of hockey championships due to the war of aggression on Ukraine. The Russian team will also be excluded in the coming year in Switzerland. It will be decided in February 2027 whether the tournament in 2027 can start in Germany.
Individual starters can start as “neutral athletes”
The IOC recommendation for Milan and Cortina does not affect the individual starter, they can be there as “neutral athletes” in Italy. The international ice skating union ISU has already made it possible to participate in qualification competitions from Russia and Belarus. The decision applies to a limited number in the disciplines of figure skating, ice skating and shorttrack and is linked to strict editions.
At the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, Russia was still represented with an ice hockey team. As a “team of the Russian Olympic Committee”, the “Sbornaja” won silver. At that time, Russia was excluded as a nation after the doping scandal of the winter games in 2014 in Sochi and the subsequent years.