Photo: Nathan Cima // Unsplash
Nine skiers have been approved to compete in the upcoming Milano Cortina Winter Olympics as neutral athletes. In a reversal from its previous stance on the subject, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) approved three skiers from Russia and six from Belarus to compete in qualifying events for the games, as the BBC reports.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, most Winter Olympic sports federations have barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from representing their countries in international competition. In September, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that it would allow neutral athletes to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics (under the same conditions it laid out for the Paris games), but the final decision was ultimately up to each individual sport federation. The FIS had previously announced that it would not make any exceptions for skiers to compete as neutral athletes.
Among the approved skiers are a number of decorated athletes. Russian skier Anastasia Tatalina was a Big Air world champion in 2021 and finished fourth in freeski slopestyle at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Belarusian freestyle skier Hanna Huskova won the women’s aerials at the Pyeongchang Olympics, and took silver in Beijing.
The decision may also clear the way for more athletes to participate in the games. “Over the course of the upcoming days and weeks, as more eligibility reviews are conducted and more decisions are made, FIS will publish updated versions of the AIN list,” wrote the organization in a statement.
