The 2026 Winter Olympics will feature a mere 20 athletes from Russia and Belarus, a stark contrast to the 200+ Russian competitors in 2022. This drastic reduction, approved by the International Olympic Committee, signifies a new era of neutrality and exclusion, fundamentally altering the landscape of international competition.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The stage is set for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, but the absence of a national presence for Russia and Belarus will be one of the most defining stories of the Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed invitations for a total of just 13 Russian athletes and 7 from Belarus to compete as neutral individuals, a fraction of the powerhouse teams that have dominated winter sports for decades.
This is not just a reduction in numbers; it’s a fundamental transformation. Four years ago in Beijing, the Russian team boasted over 200 athletes, a formidable contingent that closed the Games just four days before the nation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That event triggered a cascade of sanctions, leading to the near-total exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competition.
The athletes who will compete in Italy next month will do so under a strict set of conditions. They will not represent their countries, nor will they be allowed to use their national flag, colors, or anthem. They are forbidden from participating in the opening ceremony’s athlete parade and will be known by the French acronym AIN (Individual Neutral Athletes). This neutral status is reserved for athletes in individual sports who were judged to have not actively supported their countries’ war on Ukraine and who are not contracted to military or state security agencies.
The sports affected by these latest invitations are Alpine skiing and luge. In Alpine skiing, two Russians and one Belarusian have been invited. Among them is Yulia Pleshkova, who has started three World Cup races this season with a best result of 40th in a downhill. Her presence, alongside Belarus’s Simon Efimov and Maria Shkanova, highlights that none of these invited athletes are considered realistic medal contenders. Their inclusion is a technicality, made possible by a Dec. 2 ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport that overturned a blanket ban by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.
The luge invitations include Russians Daria Olesik and Pavel Repilov. Olesik made history by becoming the first Russian to start a luge World Cup race in almost four years when she competed last month in Lake Placid, New York. Repilov, a silver medalist in boy’s singles at the 2020 Lausanne Winter Youth Olympics, represents a more established name in the sport.
Despite these individual athletes, Russia’s exclusion from team sports remains a significant blow. The nation, still barred from team events like ice hockey as it was at the 2024 Paris Summer Games, will not be able to field a full team in any sport. This stands in stark contrast to the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where Russian athletes competing under the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) banner won 32 medals, including five gold.
The best Russian medal prospects at the upcoming Games are figure skaters Adeliia Petrosian and Petr Gumennik, who were also granted neutral status. Their performances will be closely watched, but they will compete without the national support and fanfare that once defined Olympic participation for Russian athletes.
This new reality is the culmination of a seismic shift in the Olympic landscape. The 2026 Games will not be remembered for the sheer number of Russian competitors, but for their profound absence, replaced by a handful of individuals competing in anonymity. This is the legacy of the geopolitical conflict that has now irrevocably altered the path of international sports.
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