Russian athletes to compete at the Milan Cortina Games, but not for Russia
Russian athletes to compete at the Milan Cortina Games, but not for Russia
Rebecca CohenTue, February 3, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC
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Justine Goode / NBC News; Getty Images
For the second consecutive Olympic Games, no athletes will compete under the Russian flag.
Instead, 13 Russians will participate in the Milan Cortina Games — which begin Friday — as Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs), a designation that will also include seven Belarusians.
The designation comes as the war in Ukraine continues to rage. A new round of peace talks is scheduled for this week, with U.S. efforts to broker an end to the conflict having so far been unsuccessful.
The AIN designation follows on from the Paris 2024 Games, which similarly excluded Russia and Belarus. Just like in Paris, athletes from Russia and Belarus won’t be included in the opening ceremony, nor will their countries’ flags be flown. If any of the athletes top the podium at the end of an event, their nations’ anthems won’t be played.
The decision to oust both nations from the Olympics follows Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, just days after the end of the Beijing Games, which featured the then-Russian Olympic Committee. Belarus has provided critical support to Russia in the war, prompting the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to hand down the same punishment to both nations.
The IOC’s Individual Neutral Athlete Eligibility Review Panel gets the final call on who gets invitations to the Games. Once they are accepted, athletes must sign a Conditions of Participation form that “contains a commitment to respect the Olympic Charter, including ‘the peace mission of the Olympic Movement.’”
To make it on the team, AINs from Russia and Belarus also must prove they aren’t actively supporting the war in Ukraine.
Russia has historically been a powerhouse in the Winter Olympics. It is often among the countries with the highest medal counts at the end of the Games, including in 2022, when the Russian Olympic Committee earned the second-most total medals.
This year, the 13 Russian athletes will participate in just seven events: two in Alpine skiing, two in cross-country skiing, two in figure skating, two in luge, two in short track, one in ski mountaineering and two in speed skating.
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Russian athletes have competed under a host of titles through the years thanks to scandals and the changing landscape of the Soviet Union. The 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro is the last time Russia was allowed to use its own name and represent itself as a country.
That year, a whistleblower exposed a widespread doping scandal executed by the country, prompting the IOC to ban Russia beginning in 2017. The IOC didn’t enforce the ban in time for the Olympics in Rio.
In 2018, Russian athletes who passed drug tests competed in PyeongChang, South Korea, as the Olympic Athletes from Russia.
The following year, the World Anti-Doping Agency banned Russia from all international sports competitions for four years.
Russia appealed, and the ban was set to expire after two years, but it would have been in effect in 2022 for the Games in Beijing, according to NBC Olympics. But just days after the closing ceremony, Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to a 2023 ban of the Russian Olympic Committee for the Paris Games in 2024. The ban doesn’t have an end date, and it isn’t clear whether Russia will be back on the Olympic map in time for Los Angeles 2028.
Russia, which typically delivers one of the strongest figure skating performances, will offer only two athletes in the competition this year because of restrictions.
Petr Gumennik and Adeliia Petrosian will step in to represent their nation on the ice, and according to The , they are the likeliest to medal of all the AINs across events.
At the 2022 Games, the Russian Olympic Committee took home 32 medals, including five gold, but not one for Kamila Valieva, the teenage figure skating phenom who got tied up at the center of a doping scandal. Her team gold was stripped, but even without her score, the Russian team still earned bronze.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended Valieva for four years starting in 2021.
Source: “AOL Sports”
