FIS Bars Russian Athletes, Defying IOC Policy for Winter Olympics

Oberhofen, Switzerland, Oct 23 (AP) — The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) has recently announced a significant decision impacting the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the qualifiers for the upcoming Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

The FIS council's decision, made on Tuesday, effectively prevents Russian skiers and snowboarders from participating in dozens of events at the February Games. This move is contrary to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) policy, which permits athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to compete as "Individual Neutral Athletes," a system utilized during the Paris Olympics last year.

Despite the IOC's allowance, FIS, which has prohibited Russian and Belarusian national teams since 2022, has chosen not to adopt the neutral athlete system for its qualifiers. The ruling also encompasses Paralympic events overseen by FIS, despite the International Paralympic Committee reinstating Russia and Belarus to full membership last month.

Potential Friction

This decision comes just days before the first Alpine skiing World Cup event of the season, set to be a women's giant slalom in Austria. Although Russia is not dominant in Alpine skiing, it ranks as a top contender in cross-country skiing and is a recurrent medalist in events like snowboard slalom, ski jumping, and freestyle.

The potential inclusion of Russians as neutral athletes could have created tensions between FIS and the predominantly northern European countries that host World Cup events. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, FIS initially allowed Russian athletes to compete without national symbols. However, after Norway's pledge to ban Russian competitors from its events, FIS quickly reversed its stance, excluding Russian skiers.

Approaches of Other Winter Sports to Russia

FIS represents the largest of the nine international sports federations governing Olympic sports, with its events accounting for nearly half of the total medals to be awarded at Milan-Cortina. With Russian athletes absent from ski events, the count of "neutral athletes" at the Games might dwindle to just a handful.

So far, only the governing bodies for ice skating and the newly introduced ski mountaineering have provided avenues for Russian qualification. Meanwhile, sports such as hockey and biathlon maintain existing bans.

Two Russian figure skaters and one from Belarus have successfully qualified as neutrals, with more opportunities potentially arising in speedskating through forthcoming qualifiers. Additionally, one Russian has secured a spot in ski mountaineering as the sole confirmed neutral athlete in a snow sport.

By comparison, the 2022 Russian Olympic Committee team included 206 athletes, whereas Belarus featured 24 competitors. AP SSC SSC

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