Individual Neutral Athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics
| Individual Neutral Athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics | |
|---|---|
 The final version of the AIN flag assigned by the IOC on 19 March 2024 | |
| IOC code | AIN |
| NOC | Athlètes Individuels Neutres |
| in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy 6 February 2026 – 22 February 2026 | |
| Competitors | 9 (4 men and 5 women) in 4 sports |
| Flag bearer | N/A (not participating in Parade of Nations) |
| Winter Olympics appearances (overview) | |
| Other related appearances | |
 Soviet Union (1956–1988) Unified Team (1992) Russia (1994–2014) Olympic Athletes from Russia (2018) ROC (2022)
 Belarus (1994–2022) | |
Individual Neutral Athletes[a] is expected to be the name used to represent approved individual Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned those nations' previous designations due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that continued into the duration of the games. The IOC country code is AIN, from the French athlètes individuels neutres.[1]
The delegation was banned from using the Olympic flag and Olympic anthem, which was the usual custom for neutral designated athletes in previous games. They instead used a teal flag depicting a circular AIN emblem and a one-off instrumental anthem, both assigned by the IOC.[2][3][4] Individual neutral athletes have to be first background checked and then approved by each sport's international federation, and then by a special panel created by the IOC.[5] Due to the AIN participating as a neutral team under certain conditions, the delegation will not march the parade of nations during the opening ceremony and will not receive an official ranking in the medal tables.[3]
While the flag uses the singular wording "Individual Neutral Athlete", the IOC uses the plural wording "Individual Neutral Athletes" in prose.[6]
Background
[edit]
Timeline
[edit]Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, which began shortly after the 2022 Winter Olympics, the IOC banned Russia and Belarus[b] and recommended that other international sporting organizers do the same on 28 February 2022.[8] Accordingly, Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from the 2022 Winter Paralympics.
On 25 January 2023, the IOC published a statement supporting the idea that Russian and Belarusian athletes could be allowed to compete as neutrals, as long as they did not "actively" support the war and as long as Russian and Belarusian flags, anthems, colors, and names were disallowed (thus banning the alternate designations used by Russia in 2018, 2020 and 2022).[9]
On 28 March 2023, the IOC introduced the AIN name and narrowed the requirements down to individual athletes, disallowing any teams of Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing. For events organized by an international federation (IF) other than the IOC, the IOC recommended using no flag at all (or if not possible, the event's flag, the IF's flag, or the letters "AIN") and the event's anthem or the IF's anthem.[10] Federations that did not have French as an official language still used the AIN name.[11] The IOC also donated $5 million to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.[12]
On 22 September 2023, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned the Russian flag and anthem from international sporting events for a second time[c] due to Russian legislation and RUSADA failing to comply with the World Anti-Doping Code, overlapping with the Olympic Truce ban. WADA announced that the ban would not be lifted until "the non-conformities related to national legislation are corrected in full."[13][14]
On 12 October 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee until further notice, overlapping with the other two bans, due to its violation of the Olympic Charter due to its inclusion of the regional Olympic Councils of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk into the Russian Olympic Committee.[15][16] At the time of its violation of the Olympic Charter, Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov had said he did not see any problems with the incorporation of the former Ukrainian regional IOCs into the Russian IOC.[17] The Russian Olympic Committee responded to its suspension by saying that the IOC had not issued a similar suspension after the Russian Olympic Committee annexed a sporting entity in Crimea in 2014, to which IOC President Thomas Bach remarked, "this argument was a little bit, 'Why did you not sanction us already, earlier?'"[18]
On 8 December 2023, the IOC published a "draft" version of the AIN flag depicting a colorless emblem on a white background, and stated that they would decide on a different neutral anthem at a later date. The IOC also officially stated that the AIN designation would apply to the Paris 2024 Games, and that official medal rankings would exclude AIN.[7]
On 19 March 2024, the IOC updated the AIN flag to teal text and a teal background,[2] and published an instrumental anthem "produced solely for this purpose."[3] The IOC also stated that as independent athletes, AIN will not participate as a delegation during the parade of nations at the opening ceremony, but the athletes would still "be given the opportunity to experience the event".[19][20] Russian and Belarusian athletes were not permitted to enter in team events at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris; 15 Russian and 17 Belarusian neutrals participated as a result.[21]
In December 2024, the International Skating Union announced that athletes from Belarus and Russia would be allowed to participate in events at the 2026 Winter Olympics; if qualified, they would compete under the Individual Neutral Athlete banner, as was done at the 2024 Summer Olympics.[22] In December 2024, the International Ski Mountaineering Federation announced that five Russian ski mountaineers would be allowed to compete as individual neutral athletes in the 2026 Winter Olympics qualifiers.[23]
Competitors
[edit]The following is the list of number of competitors participating at the Games per sport/discipline.
AIN team had 9 competitors from the following nations:
- Belarus – 2 competitors
- Russia – 7 competitors
The following is a list of the number of competitors representing the Individual Neutral Athletes that participated at the Games:
| Sport | Men | Women | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belarus | Russia | Belarus | Russia | ||
| Cross-country skiing | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Figure skating | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Short-track speed skating | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Ski mountaineering | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
Cross-country skiing
[edit]Following the completion of the 2025–26 FIS Cross-Country World Cup in the first World Cup period (28 November – 14 December 2025), The Individual Neutral Athletes has qualified further two female and one male athlete.[24][25]
| Athlete | From | Event | Final | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Deficit | Rank | |||
| Hanna Machakhina | Belarus | Women's | |||
| Savelii Korostelev | Russia | Men's | |||
| Dariya Nepryaeva | Russia | Women's | |||
Figure skating
[edit]The Individual Neutral Athletes earned one quota in men's singles and two quota in women's singles at the ISU Skate to Milano Figure Skating Qualifier 2025 in Beijing, China.[26][27][28]
| Athlete | From | Event | SP/SD | FP/FD | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | Rank | Points | Rank | Points | Rank | |||
| Petr Gumennik | Russia | Men's singles | ||||||
| Adeliia Petrosian | Women's singles | |||||||
| Viktoriia Safonova | Belarus | |||||||
Short-track speed skating
[edit]The Individual Neutral Athletes qualified two short-track speed skaters (one per gender) after the conclusion of the 2025–26 ISU Short Track World Tour.[29]
| Athlete | From | Event | Heat | Quarterfinal | Semifinal | Final | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | |||
| Russia | Men's 1000 m | |||||||||
| Men's 1500 m | — | |||||||||
| Russia | Women's 500 m | |||||||||
| Women's 1000 m | ||||||||||
Ski mountaineering
[edit]The Individual Neutral Athletes has qualified one male ski mountaineer through the 2025 ISMF World Championships.[30][31]
| Athlete | From | Event | Heat | Semifinal | Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | |||
| Russia | Men's sprint | |||||||
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Russian: Индивидуальные нейтральные спортсмены, romanized: Individual'nyye neytral'nyye sportsmeny; Belarusian: Індывідуальныя нейтральныя спартсмены, romanized: Indyviduaĺnyja niejtraĺnyja spartsmieny; French: Athlètes Individuels Neutres, AIN
- ^ Belarus provided military support to Russia and also allowed Russia to use its territory to stage part of the invasion.
- ^ The first was a four-year ban starting 9 December 2019 due to the Russian doping scandal, which was reduced on appeal to a two-year ban starting 17 December 2020, expiring by 18 December 2022.
References
[edit]- ^ "La commission exécutive du CIO admet les athlètes individuels neutres aux Jeux Olympiques de Paris 2024 et impose des conditions d'admission strictes". Olympics.com (in French). 8 December 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ^ a b Carpenter, Les (20 March 2024). "Panel including Pau Gasol will decide Olympic eligibility for Russians". Washington Post. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
- ^ a b c AIN Eligibility Review Panel established by IOC EB – Paris Games-time protocol elements agreed on
- ^ "The 15 Russian 'neutrals' at the Paris Olympics are politically isolated and rarely in the spotlight". Associated Press News. 4 August 2024.
- ^ "Russia still banned, but "things change", says Sebastian Coe". 20 December 2023.
- ^ Individual Neutral Athletes at the Olympic Games Paris 2024
- ^ a b Principles of participation for Individual Neutral Athletes olympics.com December 2023
- ^ "IOC EB recommends no participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials". Olympics.com. 28 February 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ^ "Statement on solidarity with Ukraine, sanctions against Russia and Belarus, and the status of athletes from these countries". Olympics.com. 25 January 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ^ Recommended conditions of participants olympics.com March 2023
- ^ Results by events iwf.sport
- ^ "Following a request by the 11th Olympic Summit, IOC issues recommendations for International Federations and international sports event organisers on the participation of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport in international competitions". Olympics.com. 28 March 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ^ "WADA announces new consequences on RUSADA after ExCo meeting". 22 September 2023.
- ^ "WADA refers fresh Russian anti-doping sanctions to CAS after disputed by RUSADA". 14 October 2023.
- ^ "IOC Executive Board suspends Russian Olympic Committee with immediate effect". Olympics.com. 12 October 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ^ "Russian Olympic Committee suspended by IOC". 12 October 2023.
- ^ "Russian Olympic Committee accepts members from annexed Ukrainian territories". insidethegames.biz. 5 October 2023.
- ^ "Suspended ROC compared annexed territories' recognition to Crimea, Bach reveals". 13 October 2023.
- ^ "Paris 2024 Olympics: Russia & Belarus athletes will not be part of opening ceremony". BBC Sport. 2024-03-19. Archived from the original on 19 March 2024. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
- ^ Daffunchio Picazo, Raúl (5 March 2024). "Paris 2024: Flag, anthem and rules for Individual Neutral Athletes approved". Inside the Games. Archived from the original on 19 March 2024. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
- ^ Walker-Roberts, James (10 August 2024). "Paris Olympic Games 2024: Will Russian and Belarusian athletes compete? What country is AIN? Can they win medals?". TNT Sports. Retrieved 31 May 2025.
- ^ Agence France-Presse (20 December 2024). "Russian Skaters Allowed to Compete as Neutrals in 2026 Winter Olympics". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
- ^ Carro, Javier (30 December 2024). "Five Russian athletes authorised to compete internationally". Inside the Games. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
- ^ "Qualification System for XXV Olympic Winter Games, Milano Cortina 2026" (PDF). International Ski Federation (FIS). 21 June 2024. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
- ^ "Cross-Country quotas list for Olympic Winter Games 2026". International Ski Federation (FIS). Retrieved 15 December 2025.
- ^ "ISU Skate to Milano Figure Skating Qualifier 2025: Petr Gumennik wins men's singles by 34 points; Republic of Korea, Mexico, Ukraine, Chinese Taipei secure Olympic quotas". International Olympic Committee (IOC). Retrieved 22 September 2025.
- ^ Lena Smirnova (20 September 2025). "ISU Skate to Milano Figure Skating Qualifier 2025: Adeliia Petrosian tops women's event while Georgia, Belgium and PR China secure Olympic quotas". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 20 September 2025.
- ^ "ISU Skate to Milano Figure Skating Qualifier 2025 preview: Full schedule and how to watch live". Olympics.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2025. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
- ^ "Communication No. 2755 XXV Olympic Winter Games 2026 Milano Cortina Qualified quota places Short Track" (PDF). www.isu.org. Lausanne, Switzerland: International Skating Union. 10 December 2025. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
- ^ "Olympic Mixed relay ranking list" (PDF). ismf-ski.org. International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF). Retrieved 8 April 2025.
- ^ "Olympic Sprint Ranking List" (PDF). ismf-ski.org. International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF). Retrieved 14 April 2025.