The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is reportedly exerting pressure on international winter sports federations to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics under a neutral flag. This is according to a report by RIA-Sport, citing the Swedish broadcaster SVT.
A spokesperson for the International Biathlon Union stated, “They [IOC representatives] don’t say, ‘Do it, or you’ll lose our funding.’ But they’re very clear that they want to find a solution that allows neutral athletes to participate in the Winter Olympics. They really want to achieve this and hope that we will soon allow neutral athletes to qualify for the next season.”
The IOC is said to believe that the successful precedent of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where 15 Russians competed under a neutral flag, can be replicated at the 2026 Winter Olympics. However, the federations must first give Russian and Belarusian athletes the opportunity to qualify.
“There is an opinion that it would be good to apply a similar rule in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. However, the situation is currently that the membership of Russia and Belarus has been suspended, so we are not discussing this topic” said the president of the federation, Olle Dahlin.
The International Biathlon Union and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation had previously excluded Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions in 2022, following the situation in Ukraine. According to the source, the IOC has made it clear to both organizations through internal communication channels that a change is now necessary. The federations are therefore “in a difficult situation.