Some Russian, Belarusian skiers awarded neutral status to compete in Olympic qualifiers

Three skiers from Russia and six from Belarus — including former Olympic and world champions — were approved Wednesday to compete in qualifying events for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games in February.

The International Ski and Snowboard Federation said it cleared the applications of the nine to get neutral athlete status and return to competitions for the first time since the full military invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago. FIS did not state if it rejected some applications, or how many.

Athletes and their entourages must not have publicly supported the war and not have ties to military or state security agencies.

Freestyle skier Hanna Huskova took gold in women's aerials for Belarus at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and silver four years later in Beijing.

Anastasia Tatalina was a big air world champion for Russia in 2021, and was fourth in freeski slopestyle at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Russian cross-country skiers Savelii Korostelev and Dariya Nepryaeva also got neutral status ahead of World Cup races this weekend at Davos, Switzerland.

The Russian ski federation and athletes won a ruling last week at the Court of Arbitration for Sport forcing FIS to start processing applications for neutral status.

Russian athletes and team officials could face challenges getting visas to enter some countries that host qualifying events on the World Cup circuits in Alpine, cross-country and freestyle skiing, and snowboarding.