The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will open in 340 days at the San Siro stadium. The presence of Russian and Belarusian athletes remains a major question mark, given the divergent positions of the international federations. While waiting to make an official decision, which is highly anticipated, the International Olympic Committee is maneuvering behind the scenes. With the hope of seeing a certain number of these athletes in a year, under a neutral banner.
The inflexible biathlon
The IOC has approached the International Biathlon Union (IBU) and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) with this in mind. According to Swedish media SVT, the body would ask them to soften their position and allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in qualifying events for the Games. The approval of the federations is crucial in this matter since they are responsible for this process. In its contacts with the IFs, the IOC would have cited the success of the neutral athlete system of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as an argument. "You could say that there is a view (within the IOC) that it would be good to have a similar arrangement to Milan-Cortina, explains Olle Dahlin, President of the IBU. But the decision we made today is that Russia and Belarus are suspended member countries, so it's not something we're discussing."
The IOC will still have to fight to win its case. The International Skating Union (ISU), on the other hand, will cause it less trouble. Last week, it acknowledged receipt of the Russian and Belarusian selections for the qualifying competitions for the Games. The athletes concerned will therefore be able to compete in the coming months, hoping to be at Milan-Cortina 2026, under a neutral banner. In their sights, the qualifying events in Beijing (September 17-21), which will award around twenty quotas in figure skating, the Short Track World Tour (four stages in October-November), and the Speed Skating World Cup (four stages in November-December). The ISU will now conduct a study of the profiles of the selected skaters to ensure their neutrality with regard to the war in Ukraine.
Election, then reinstatement?
In February, Russia was boasting that some federations were "on the verge of deciding whether to allow individual athletes to participate in Olympic events or the Olympic cycle". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also mentioned that his country was continuing "to communicate with the IOC", a way to remind that Russia was not left in a corner.The Belarusian NOC also recently welcomed the normalization of its relations with the IOC. The body remains faithful to this line and to its desire not to cut ties with anyone. Discussions have taken place between the Russian Olympic Committee and the IOC on the subject of the reinstatement of the ROC, suspended since October 2023.
"We have had preliminary discussions with the IOC, confirmed the president of the Russian Tennis Federation and IOC member Shamil Tarpischev a few days ago. However, all decisions on this issue will be made after the election. If the formal issue that led to the suspension of the ROC is resolved, then the Russian Olympic Committee should be reinstated. But there are elections coming up and this issue will be dealt with after that." The IOC accuses the ROC of having undermined the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine by including the regional sports organisations of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson among its members. Would the Russian committee be prepared to review its position on the matter? Hard to imagine, given that Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that these territories belong, in his eyes, to Russia. The new IOC President will be elected on 20 March in Greece and will begin his term in June. The seven candidates to succeed Thomas Bach agree on one thing: the aim of the body is to unite, rather than exclude. The door is therefore open. The will is there, but the hardest part remains: to bring together all the conditions necessary for genuine reintegration.
