Return to the Olympic season?
Decision made about Russian athletes
Updated 10/22/2025 – 12:53 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Will Russian athletes be allowed to take part in competitions again? The association voted.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) decided on Tuesday against the return of Russian athletes to the Olympic season. The FIS announced this result of a council meeting in the evening.
This means that athletes from Russia and Belarus are not allowed to take part as so-called neutral athletes (AIN) in the FIS qualification events for the Winter Olympic Games (February 6th to 22nd) and the Paralympic Games (March 6th to 15th) in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. The decision was expected with some interest because FIS President Johan Eliasch is considered a supporter of a return.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to allow Russia to return as a sporting nation in September in view of the ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine. As in Paris 2024, athletes from Russia are generally admitted to the Olympics in Milan in 2026 as individual athletes under a neutral flag and if they meet other criteria – if they can qualify through the associations’ competitions.
According to the FIS decision, only the International Ice Skating Union (ISU) and the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF), which is responsible for ski mountaineering, currently allow neutral athletes to start.
The Paralympic Committee, however, allowed Russia full access provided the respective international sports associations agreed – but they did not. Most recently, the World Biathlon Association IBU decided that both the Russian Biathlon Association and individual starters would continue to be excluded in accordance with the decision of the IBU Congress in September 2022.
Russians and Belarusians will also continue to be missing in wheelchair curling and para ice hockey. The FIS is responsible for the three other sports of cross-country skiing, alpine skiing and snowboarding and has now also made its decision.
In the run-up to the FIS decision, a letter that the leadership of the world association sent to the national associations caused a stir. It said, among other things, that the FIS was “politically neutral” and that this was a “sacred principle”. And further: “No athlete in the world has chosen where he was born” and 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 served as the basis for the decision – which now provides for further exclusion.