But individual Russian and Belarusian athletes can take part as neutrals.
The 2026 Milan-Cortina, Italy Winter Olympics is not that far away but the Russian-Ukrainian war is casting a long shadow over the event. Russian and Belarusian athletes will be able to compete in the February games but there is a catch, actually quite a few catches, that Russian and Belarusian competitors have to overcome. The Russian and Belarusian national teams have been barred from the Olympics. Russian and Belarusian athletes will be investigated by the International Olympic Committee for any links to the Russian military or for possible support of the war in Ukraine. Being part of the military or supporting the war will exclude them. It is the same process that was used in determining whether Russian and Belarusian athletes could take part in the 2024 Paris summer games. A number of Russian and Belarusian athletes competed in Paris as “neutrals” and competed without their countries logos, national anthems and uniforms. The competitors were recognized as “Individual Neutral Athletes” and there were 32 competitors, 17 from Belarus and 15 from Russia. Russia hasn’t competed as a country since the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016. Russia was banned from the Winter Games in South Korea in 2018 and Beijing in 2022 along with the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021 for a doping scandal.
The decision to suspend Belarus, a Russian ally, and Russian teams came down in 2023. Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics which apparently ran afoul of some Olympics’ creed of don’t start a war during our global sports party. The invasion was characterized by the IOC as a “breach of the Olympic Charter.” Russia remains undeterred as it plans to bid on hosting the Olympics in the future.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
