Fis president for comeback
Return of Russian athletes? Ski association votes
Updated 10/20/2025 – 6:25 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Will Russian athletes be allowed to take part in competitions again? The President of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation commented.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) is facing a groundbreaking decision: it will be clarified on Tuesday whether Russian athletes will be allowed to return to the Olympic season. Fis President Johan Eliasch has a clear stance: he supports a return.
This emerges from a letter that Eliasch addressed to the national associations on Monday last week and which was first quoted by the Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
In it, the president emphasizes that the Fis is “politically neutral” – a “sacred principle”. Sport brings people together “like nothing else” and international competitions can build “bridges between peoples and nations”. Eliasch also emphasizes that no athlete chooses where he was born. Athletes should not be “used as a weapon for political reasons.”
The letter was signed by President Eliasch, Secretary General Michel Vion and CEO Urs Lehmann. The national associations were asked to express their views on the issue by last Friday. This survey should serve as the basis for the decision that the Fis-Council now wants to make.
The German Ski Association (DSV) was also asked. “It is and remains a difficult and complex discussion in which there is no simple or clear solution,” said DSV board member Stefan Schwarzbach to the Sport Information Service (SID): “Accordingly, we respect the different assessments and views. After careful consideration, we as the German Ski Association have come to the conclusion that the arguments against the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes outweigh.”
“Ultimately, the decision has to be made by the highest body, the Fis Council,” Schwarzbach continued: “We can understand that there are positions that are in favor of a return under a neutral flag. However, we still see the great danger that sport will be misused for political purposes in both countries. In our view, a decision against participation would therefore be understandable – even if it once again affects those who are least affected This can be done by: the athletes themselves, who have been the ones who have suffered for the past three years.”
Former DSV President Franz Steinle also sits in the “government” of the world association. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to allow the sporting nation Russia to return in September in view of the ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine.
Athletes from Russia are admitted to the Olympics in Milan in 2026, as in Paris in 2024, as individual athletes under a neutral flag and if certain criteria are met. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC), however, allowed Russia full access provided the respective international sports associations agreed. The World Biathlon Federation IBU has already decided that both the Russian Biathlon Federation and individual starters will continue to be excluded in accordance with the decision of the IBU Congress in September 2022.
Before the Fis decision, the Norwegian association president Tove Moe Dyrhaug emphasized that there was “no doubt” about her position: “We don’t want the Russians back.” Ultimately, the situation is “unchanged, it has actually gotten worse.”