Russian athletes will be competing at the 2026 Winter Olympics, but you might not realize it — and things will look very different from the last winter Games.
A total of 13 Russian athletes are set to compete at the Milan Cortina Olympics. Four years ago, the Russian team was more than 200 athletes at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
Russian athletes haven’t competed under their country’s flag at a Winter Olympics since 2014.
Here’s what to know:
Why is Russia not allowed to compete in the Olympics?
Russian athletes haven’t competed for their country since Russia hosted a doping-tainted Games in Sochi, but that’s not the reason for their status in 2026.
Over years of legal battles, fallout from drug cases meant Russians had to compete in Pyeongchang in 2018 as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” and in Beijing in 2022 as the Russian Olympic Committee, both times without the national anthem.
The World Anti-Doping Agency still lists Russia’s national testing body as “non-compliant” and says it can’t visit Russia for in-person checks on its performance. Russia denied the state was complicit in doping.
Then, four days after the Beijing closing ceremony, Moscow launched what it called a “special military operation” in Ukraine and a new wave of bans and sanctions from sports bodies followed.
Many sports barred Russian athletes from competing as part of the diplomatic fallout. Ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the International Olympic Committee gradually opened up paths for athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to qualify with neutral status.
There could also be continued scrutiny of Russian athletes’ welfare after a doping scandal in figure skating overshadowed the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. That’s when then-15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva learned she had tested positive for a banned heart medication at the Russian championships two months before the Beijing Games. The scandal unfolded in the midst of Olympic figure skating competition and resulted in a ban.
What is AIN?
In Italy, Russian and Belarusian athletes will once again be known as AIN, the French acronym for Individual Neutral Athletes.
Neutral status can be approved by the International Olympic Committee for athletes in individual sports who were judged to have not actively supported their countries’ war on Ukraine, and who are not contracted to the military or state security agencies.
The Russians and Belarusians will not have their national identity of team colors, flag or anthem and cannot take part in the Opening Ceremony’s parade of athletes.
Which events are Russian athletes not allowed to compete in?
Russia is still excluded from team sports like ice hockey at the Olympics, as it was at the 2024 Paris Summer Games.
What are Russia’s medal chances?
At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Russian athletes won 32 medals including five gold competing as ROC — the acronym for Russian Olympic Committee. Fifteen Russians competed as neutral athletes in Paris, winning their only medal in tennis.
The number could be even lower in Milan Cortina.
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