“Figure skaters from the Russian Federation and Belarus will be admitted to the competition in neutral status”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
Figure skaters from the Russian Federation and Belarus will be admitted to the competition in neutral status.
“Recognizing that participation in the Winter Olympics is the pinnacle of any skater’s career, the ISU has carefully studied the possibility of implementing the IOC’s recommendations to create a pathway to facilitate the participation of athletes affiliated with ISU members in Russia (the Russian Figure Skating Union and the Russian Figure Skating Federation) and Belarus (Union of Skaters of Belarus) in the Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina 2026,” the message says.
The new rules state that only one neutral athlete, including one pairs skating pair and one ice dancing pair, from Russia and Belarus may compete in each type of program at specified OCS events, without participating in relays or team events.
In March 2022, the ISU removed athletes from Russia and Belarus from international tournaments due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In December 2023, the International Olympic Committee decided that athletes from Russia and Belarus, who compete in individual sports, will be able to compete at the Paris Games in 2024 in a neutral status. The athletes performed under the Olympic, not the national flag, and in the event of their victory, the national anthem was not played.
In October, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andriy Sybiga, and the Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, Matvii Bidnyi, made a joint statement on October 1 regarding the impossibility of Russia’s return to world sports. This is how they commented on the words of the vice-president of the International Olympic Committee and the candidate for the post of IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, Jr. regarding the prospects of Russian sports.