Russia, Belarus athletes barred from world championships as more sports take action

Athletes from Russia and Belarus are barred from all top-level international skiing, skating and track and field events until further notice, as more sports federations took action Tuesday following International Olympic Committee board recommendations.

The International Skating Union (ISU) said it followed the IOC Executive Board recommendations to bar athletes from those two countries “in order to protect the integrity of ice skating competitions and for the safety of all the participants.”

As things stand, Russia and Belarus will have no representation at the most storied speed skating competition, the annual world allround championships, along with the world sprint championships, that begin Thursday in Norway.

The nations will also miss the world short track speed skating championships in two weeks and the world figure skating championships in three weeks if the sanction is not lifted by then.

The Russian Olympic Committee won the most figure skating medals at last month’s Olympics, including gold and silver in women’s singles and gold in the team event, the latter results pending Kamila Valieva‘s doping case.

Later Tuesday, the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced that no athletes from Russia or Belarus will participate in any of its events through the end of this season.

That includes Alpine skiing’s World Cup, which has three weeks left, and the prestigious Holmenkollen Festival in Norway for cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined that starts Wednesday.

World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, announced that Russia and Belarus athletes are barred from its competitions “for the foreseeable future.” The world indoor championships are in two weeks in Serbia.

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