Key Highlights
- They can not be affiliated with the military or other security agencies and must not publically support the Ukraine war.
- Teams are not permitted to participate. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementRussian and Belarusian athletes were banned from international competition after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a few days after the Beijing 2022 closing ceremony and before the Paralympics there, during the Olympic Truce phase. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) then suspended Russia because its Olympic committee included areas annexed from Ukraine during the war. Not all sports followThe AIN pathway started with the Paris Games but not all sports are following.
- While the skating body ISU was among the first to allow them into their qualifiers it took a decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to allow skiers back into FIS events. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe 20 athletes from Russia and Belarus will be competing in the eight sports of alpine skiing, cross country skiing, freestyle skiing, ski mountaineering, luge, figure skating, speed skating and short track. Biathlon, a sport that twins cross country skiing and rifle shooting, has no Russian starters for obvious reasons, but also because most Russian athletes are affiliated with the military.‘This may be somewhat polemic, but I would say that it is difficult to imagine Ukrainian and Russian athletes standing side by side with rifles," Christian Winkler, communications director of the ruling body IBU, has said. Ukraine not happyGerman luge great Felix Loch, a co-founder of the "Athletes for Ukraine" group, just hopes "that nothing happens" at the Games while the Ukraine team has condemned admitting the Russians. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"I think that's really bad overall because it normalizes Russia's actions and makes people think less and less about the war," skeleton slider Vladyslav Haraskevych told Deutschlandfunk radio last month. Heraskevych also said the vetting criteria were not strict enough."We have people in our sport who prepared for competitions in Crimea, in occupied territory, and were still recognized as neutral athletes.
- Some people have connections to the army.
- We still have people who supported the war and are allowed to compete.