By Gavin Kentch
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport held earlier Tuesday that qualifying neutral Russian or Belarusian athletes must be allowed to participate in FIS races serving as qualification events for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The decision follows an appeal by the Russian and Belarusian national ski federations of an October decision by the FIS Council that skiers from these nations could not participate in FIS races as Individual Neutral Athletes, or “AIN” per the French acronym for same.
A hearing was held yesterday. A press release from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, or CAS, followed today. I do not have a reasoned decision to share or parse at this time; courts often issue brief orders shortly after a hearing for the sake of efficiency, with a longer, more substantive decision to follow later. The lawyer in me is not thrilled to be quoting from a media release rather than the text of the order itself, but there you have it.
According to this “unofficial summary for media use,” the court held that “Russian and Belarusian athletes who meet the International Olympic Committee AIN eligibility criteria should be allowed to participate in FIS qualification events.”
The panels’ reasoning turned on the application of statutory neutrality provisions to FIS’s actions. Specifically:
“Both Panels found that the FIS Statutes protect individuals from discrimination and require the FIS to be politically neutral (Art. 5.2). Consequently, the appeals were partially upheld on the basis that the FIS decision is a blanket exclusion of athletes due to nationality, regardless of whether athletes would meet AIN eligibility criteria.”
(The plural “Panels” here is in reference to separate proceedings concerning appeals by both the Russian Ski Association and the Belarusian Ski Union, each challenging the same decision by FIS. The appeals have been effectively consolidated for purposes of this ruling. I don’t know if they have been consolidated in the appellate-term-of-art sense of the word; again, there is no formal order or decision here. But I do know that there is just one press release for both appeals.)
The FIS statute cited here reads, in full, “FIS shall not allow any discrimination against national federations or individuals (competitors, officials, judges, delegates, etc.) on the grounds of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, political affiliations, languages or abilities. FIS shall conduct its activities in a politically neutral manner.” As the press release notes, the court’s ruling is basically that a no-exceptions, blanket exclusion of all athletes from specific countries violates this provision.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhat happens next
I’m writing this around 11 a.m. Alaska time. It is already Tuesday night in central Europe. World Cup racing resumes in Trondheim on Friday, when the classic sprint qual starts at 9:45 a.m. local time. That is approximately sixty hours from now. Visa rules for Russian nationals who wish to enter Norway are complicated.
Russian and Belarusian athletes who wish to participate in upcoming races, or to be considered for participation, must… send FIS an email.
In its own press release, which is already buried three stories deep on the “latest news” section of the FIS home page, FIS states, “The CAS decision allows the participation of all athletes and support personnel of Russian and Belarusian sporting nationality as AIN in qualification events for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, as well as in the Games themselves, in compliance with the IOC eligibility criteria for AIN.”
(The press release headline begins, “CAS requests that Russian and Belarusian athletes participate,” which is one way to present a court order stating that you lost an appeal and now must do something.)
It continues, “FIS has acknowledged the CAS decision. All affected athletes who are eligible to request for AIN status — in conformance with the FIS Individual Neutral Athlete Policy — should do so by sending an email to: neutralathletes@fis-ski.com.”
The FIS policy linked to above [stable link in case that changes] largely mirrors the language of the IOC neutral-athlete policy previously enacted. The FIS version sets out several conditions for eligibility, including a requirement for strict neutrality toward both the national ski federations and the war in Ukraine, compliance with established anti-doping rules, and participation in solely an individual capacity — no relay teams.
What do people think about this
They are not happy in Norway. “I hope they don’t come,” says the mayor of Trondheim of the Russians and this weekend’s races. (That said, the race director and staff of the Trondheim World Cup are clear that they will abide by whatever decision is presented to them. “My responsibility is to make ski races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” said Trondheim race official Daniel Myrmæl Helgestad to NRK. “I stick to that. We will create good ski races for those on the start list.”)
They are happy in Russia. “The arbitrators found the claims of the Russian side to be justified and legitimate,” Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev told state media apparatus TASS. “It’s important to note that this is the third court decision in favor of Russia in Winter Olympic sports disciplines,” he added, accurately, following decisions regarding two sliding sport federations.
In a separate article, Degtyarev said he anticipated sending 15 to 20 Russian athletes to the Milan–Cortina Games. “That is the maximum number we can hope to send under the present conditions. Nevertheless, we will be represented. We must broadcast, watch, and support our team. Every victory will be worth its weight in gold, particularly under such difficult circumstances.”
“This is one small step for specific skiers,” wrote firebrand Russian skier Veronika Stepanova on Instagram earlier today, per an auto-translation, “but a giant leap for the entire global skiing community. Let those, who have tried to exclude us all these years, remember my words three years ago: what are you trying for? What are you trying to prove? We’ll be back anyway!”
What is the actual scope of this decision
I laid out Olympic qualification pathways, and FIS’s role in same, in exhaustive detail in October in the following article:
The one-sentence takeaway from same is that qualification for Olympic cross-country ski races, for Russian and Belarusian athletes, can at this point occur only via strong performances in Period 1 races at the start of the 2025/2026 World Cup season.
In a follow-up article discussing the October 21 decision by the FIS Council, I noted, “Technically speaking, the FIS statement encompasses only ‘FIS qualification events for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Games.’ Because the Olympic qualifying window ends with ‘the first World Cup period 2025/2026,’ per the IOC, the letter of the law here would allow Russian participation on the World Cup starting in Period 2, when the Tour de Ski kicks off in Italy in late December. Such a development may be against the spirit of the law (or who knows? maybe this was precisely the compromise necessary to get some nations on board with a Scandinavian bloc and force a ‘no’ vote?), but I should acknowledge that possibility here.”
We remain in this Olympic qualification–specific box at this time.
The October resolution from the FIS Council specifically involved “the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus as Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) in FIS qualification events for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Games” (emphasis added). The opening statement of the CAS media release similarly states that the federations’ appeals regard “the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes under Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) status for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.” And, again, the panels’ ruling is that athletes who meet AIN eligibility criteria “should be allowed to participate in FIS qualification events,” i.e., events potentially qualifying athletes for the 2026 Winter Olympics or Paralympics.
By its terms, today’s decision therefore applies only to three weekends of World Cup racing in November and December of this year: Ruka, Trondheim, and Davos. Anything after that is not a “FIS qualification event[],” which is coterminous with the lengthier category of “FIS qualification events for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Games.”
In practice, I would still be surprised if different rules are in place for the Tour de Ski at the end of this month, which kicks off Period 2 of the World Cup season but falls after the window of qualifying races. The panels’ reasoning regarding FIS’s violation of Article 5.2 would presumptively apply to a comparable decision made later this month addressing participation in Period 2 and beyond. But I do have to flag that, by the letter of the law, today’s decision applies only to the next two weekends’ worth of World Cup racing.
FIS originally made an Olympics-specific decision and the federations appealed from same, is how we have ended up here. But it does have to be said that I do not actually know what the neutral-athlete rules are for World Cup races on December 28 and following. Or for non–World Cup FIS races being held anywhere in the world as of today, since anything other than a World Cup race is not an Olympic qualifying event. Stay tuned.
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Isn’t the AIN condition of “strict neutrality on the war in Ukraine” a matter of “political” view or “affiliation”? If so, then how is this AIN condition justified under the IOC charter and FIS rules. For example, what if a U.S. skier whose last name rhymes with “Wiggins” went on a retreat with a Russian skier whose last name sounds like “Stepping Over,” and came out with a press release that she, i.e. Wiggins, has changed her mind and now supports Russia regarding the war? I assume AIN conditions don’t apply to U.S. skiers, but still . . .? Same with Bolshunov’s (excluding) service in the Russian national guard, and Stepping Over’s sharply expressed views on various topics.