Nyet!
The International Olympic Committee is keeping the country of Russia out of the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Italy. The IOC was reacting to reports out of Russia that hockey officials from the country had held talks with the International Ice Hockey Federation over Olympic participation. The IOC banned Russian teams from competing in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Paralympics because the country invaded Ukraine. That happened in February 2022 during the Beijing Winter Olympics. “The IOC Executive Board recommendation from March 2023 with regard to teams of athletes with a Russian passport remains in place. It is based on the fact that, by definition, a group of Individual Neutral Athletes cannot be considered a team. We take note that the IIHF has confirmed that it will follow this recommendation.” the IOC said in a statement. A small number of individual Russian and Belarusian athletes were allowed to take part in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. They competed without the Russian or Belarusian flag and anthem and competed as neutral athletes.
The decision to suspend the Belarusian and Russian teams is easy to explain. Russia invaded Ukraine for whatever reason the Russian President Vladimir Putin had in February 2022 and Belarus is a Russian ally. To complicate Olympics matters, Russia launched the invasion during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics which apparently runs afoul of some Olympics’ creed of don’t start a war during our global sports party. Four Russian figure skaters in men’s and women’s singles were recently approved by the International Skating Union to try to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics as neutral athletes. The Russian hockey team is one of the best in the world. The team won the Gold Medal at the 2018 South Korea Winter Olympics and took home a Silver Medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
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