Are Russian athletes competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics?

Every time Nikita Filippov races, it’s an uphill struggle. At the Olympics, even more so.The 23-year-old from Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka peninsula is a medal contender in the rugged new Olympic sport of ski mountaineering.At the Milan Cortina Olympics, he’ll be one of the few Russians competing as “Individual Neutral Athletes.” That means they aren’t formally representing their country. They cannot wear any Russian symbols and won’t hear the Russian national anthem if they win a gold medal.Video above: Team USA hockey player overcomes disappointment to achieve Olympic dream”It gives me more competitive zeal in the race because I want to prove to everyone that we’re strong, even without the flag or anthem, and can beat anyone,” Filippov told The Associated Press at a training camp in the Caucasus mountains. “I think everyone knows where we’re from, and maybe it even attracts more attention.”Why Russian athletes won’t wear their flag at Milan CortinaMany sports barred Russian athletes from competing as part of the diplomatic fallout after Russian troops moved into Ukraine four days after the last Winter Olympics in 2022. Ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the International Olympic Committee slowly opened up paths for athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to qualify with neutral status.Russian athletes are ineligible for neutral status from the IOC if they’re under contract with Russian or Belarusian security agencies or the military, or if they have expressed support for Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have disputed whether some of those Russians competing in Olympic qualifiers truly meet the neutral restrictions.Fifteen Russians competed as neutral athletes in Paris, winning their only medal in tennis.At Milan Cortina, like in Paris, they won’t be able to parade as a delegation in the opening ceremony.Filippov, the first Russian “neutral” athlete to qualify for Milan Cortina, said that it didn’t bother him.”I’ll get more rest and have more strength in the race than other athletes,” he said.The IOC has come under increasing pressure to put similar restrictions on athletes from Israel following the war in Gaza.Figure skaters competing at OlympicsRussian figure skater Adeliia Petrosian, competing as an “individual neutral athlete,” said she is feeling “excellent” after a practice session at the Winter Olympics on Monday with her controversial coach, seemingly dispelling injury concerns.Petrosian was joined by coach Eteri Tutberidze for a half-hour session at the practice rink next to the venue where she competed in the women’s short program on Tuesday against the likes of Amber Glenn and Alysa Liu. She’s only competed once in a senior competition outside of Russia and her fitness had been uncertain following comments about injuries last month in a recent Russian documentary.Ban on team sports keeps Russians from NHL out of OlympicsBoth have been barred from team sports by the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation since invading Ukraine just after the Beijing Games in 2022.While there’s a general understanding in the hockey community about why Russia is not allowed to compete, there is some disappointment in leaving some of the best players in the world out of the first so-called best-on-best international tournament in a decade.”When I’m reading the Russian sports press, commentators will say, ‘Well, this tournament isn’t top level because the Russian team, the best team in the world, isn’t even there,'” Bruce Berglund, author of “The Moscow Playbook: How Russia Used, Abused, and Transformed Sports in the Hunt for Power,” told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday.“At this moment to have Russia send its hockey team and then to be able to use that as grist for their political mill, I don’t see how — other than a purely hockey argument of the quality of the tournament — you can make the case Russia should be participating,” Berglund said. “Hockey is so important to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. And whether it’s hockey or any other sport, Russia and Putin’s government uses it for their own political gains.”The NHL has allowed Russians to continue playing since the war broke out.The shadow of SochiRussian athletes haven’t competed under their country’s flag at a Winter Olympics since 2014, when Russia hosted a doping-tainted Games in Sochi.Over years of legal battles, fallout from those drug cases meant Russians had to compete in Pyeongchang in 2018 as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” and in Beijing in 2022 under the team name of just “ROC” – so that it wouldn’t have the words Russia or Olympic – 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.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.Ukrainian Olympians show country’s resilienceWar has taken a heavy toll on Ukrainian sport. Athletes were displaced or called up to fight. Soccer matches are often interrupted by air raid sirens, so attendance is capped by bomb shelter capacity. Elite skaters, skiers and biathletes usually train abroad, with attacks and frequent blackouts shuttering local facilities.Nevertheless, Ukraine has managed to bring 46 athletes to Milan Cortina. They range from Kyrylo Marsak, the country’s lone figure skater in Milan, to six cross-country skiers and 10 biathletes.They aim to send a message to Russia and the rest of the world, Bidnyi said.”We have the opportunity to raise our flag to show that Ukraine is resilient, Ukraine is still in power,” he said. “We have a will to win, and we continue to be one of the most successful sport teams in the world because success in sports always was a part of the Ukrainian national brand.”Ukrainian athletes clash with officials over tributesUkrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych came to the Olympics with a customized helmet showing the faces of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches who were killed during their country’s war with Russia.But the IOC said Monday night that the helmet wouldn’t be allowed in competition, citing a rule against making political statements on the Olympic field of play. Heraskevych wore the helmet for training Tuesday and Wednesday anyway, knowing the IOC could ultimately keep him from the Olympic race.The IOC disagrees, and planned to talk to Heraskevych again on Wednesday to discuss what would be allowed, spokesman Mark Adams said. Adams said those words about an hour before Heraskevych’s Wednesday training session, so it wasn’t immediately clear when or if that conversation would occur.”We will reiterate the many, many opportunities that he has to express his grief,” Adams said. “As we discussed before, he can do so on social media and press conferences in the mixed zone. So, we will try to talk to him about that and try to convince him.”We want him to compete. We really, really want him to have his moment. That’s very, very important. We want all athletes to have their moment, and that’s the point. We want all our athletes to have a fair and level playing field.”The IOC has offered Heraskevych a chance to wear a black armband in competition as a display of his grief and mourning of countrymen, even though such tributes are typically not allowed. Adams said that represents a compromise; Heraskevych said he’s not interested.Other Ukrainian athletes are speaking out in support of Heraskevych — with their hands.”Remembrance is not a violation,” Ukrainian luge athlete Olena Smaha wrote on the palm of her glove during the final two runs of the women’s luge event Tuesday night, a clear reference to the helmet and the fallout. (Smaha has written other messages on her glove before races in the past.) And Wednesday, just moments after he crossed the finish line in the men’s super-G race, Ukrainian skier Dmytro Shepiuk lifted his right glove to show “UKR heroes with us” in another show of solidarity with Heraskevych.Ellingworth reported from Duesseldorf, Germany. Stefanie Dazio, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Tim Reynolds, Vladimir Kondrashov in Terskol, Brian Melley in London and Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.

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