FIS clears 25 more cross-country skiers, 13 of them Belarusian. None has the points to race the World Cup

Analysis · Published · Updated

FIS has cleared another 25 cross-country skiers from Russia and Belarus to race as neutral athletes. The list of approved neutral athletes dated 30 October has 71 athletes in its cross-country section, up from 47 on 27 October: 56 Russians and 15 Belarusians. A 25th new name, the Russian Natalia Kramarenko, is filed under ski cross on the list, but she is a cross-country skier with a cross-country FIS code. TASS counted her among the 12 Russian skiers cleared on Friday. Nobody was removed, and the number of cleared cross-country coaches and support staff is unchanged at 25.

Aleksandr Bolshunov and Veronika Stepanova are still not on the list. Neither are Sergey Ardashev, Alexander Terentev and Alena Baranova, the other three skiers Russia pre-selected for Ruka and Trondheim on condition that FIS clears them.

Belarus’s first big group

Until Friday, Belarus had only two cross-country skiers on the list, Hanna Machakhina and Hanna Karaliova. Now it has 15. The 13 new Belarusians are all young: the oldest, Yahor Karotkin, was born in 2005, and two of the girls, Iryna Sharypava and Anastasia Khaladzinskaya, in 2010.

  • Men (5): Kirill Buevich (born 2008), Yahor Karotkin (2005), Stanislau Krauchuk (2007), Artsiom Nestsiaronak (2007), Bahdan Viarbilovich (2009)
  • Women (8): Milana Bykouskaya (2009), Katsiaryna Kasachova (2009), Anastasia Khaladzinskaya (2010), Iryna Krautsova (2006), Aliaksandra Parfionava (2008), Iryna Sharypava (2010), Liudmila Tarubarava (2008), Viktoryia Zhemkova (2006)

The new Russians are a mix of older domestic racers and juniors: Ivan Bezmaternykh (born 1997), Andrei Zarodov (1999), Dmitrii Zhul (2000), Ekaterina Bulycheva (2000), Viktor Zhul (2001), Kramarenko (2004), Egor Rudyi (2005), Pavel Kozadaev (2005), Arsenii Vlasov (2005), Uliana Lebedeva (2007), Gleb Beliaev (2008) and Anna Sergeeva (2009).

No new World Cup starters

To start a World Cup race, a skier needs 150 FIS points or less on the points list valid for that race: distance points for distance races, distance or sprint points for sprints. We checked all 25 new names against the current list, the second of 2026/27, valid until 11 November.

None of them qualifies. Only two have any points at all, both Belarusian: Karotkin has 277.91 distance points and 290.98 sprint points, and Krautsova has 414.22 sprint points. The other 23 have none on the current list.

That leaves Russia exactly where it was after the 27 October update. Seven men and five women are cleared and have the points to start in Ruka on 27–29 November, against six start places per gender in each individual race:

  • Men: Savelii Korostelev (9.51 distance points), Ilia Semikov (24.22), Ivan Gorbunov (33.02), Nikita Denisov (37.75), Nikita Rodionov (42.97), Egor Mitroshin (44.97), Viacheslav Mamichev (119.01)
  • Women: Natalia Terenteva (7.68), Dariya Nepryaeva (15.62), Ekaterina Nikitina (86.60), Alina Pekletsova (93.86), Lidiia Gorbunova (102.56)

For Belarus, the World Cup picture is even thinner. Karaliova, who raced at the Milano Cortina Olympics, switched to biathlon in the summer and is no longer on the cross-country points list. That leaves Machakhina as the only Belarusian with World Cup points. Her 119.59 distance points also count for sprints. Last season she raced the World Cup as a neutral athlete, with a best of 39th in a mass start.

What the new names are for

Most of the new skiers are juniors, and the list is not only about the World Cup. Neutral status lets them enter any FIS race outside Russia and Belarus, including junior and under-23 events, as long as they meet the neutrality conditions. Skiers without points have to earn them in FIS races abroad first. Russian and Belarusian domestic races are not on the FIS calendar, so results at home don’t count.

That takes time. The third FIS points list of the season takes effect on 12 November and is expected to be the one in force at Ruka. Russia picks the rest of its team for the first two World Cup weekends at the “Yugoria. First Snow” races in Khanty-Mansiysk on 10 and 11 November, and on Friday’s list it still has only seven men and five women it could actually send.

The gap that matters for Russia is at the top, not in the numbers. Its federation wants ten men and ten women for Ruka and Trondheim. Bolshunov, Terentev and Ardashev would take the men’s side to ten. On the women’s side, Stepanova has not applied for neutral status, as far as is publicly known, and Baranova’s status is unclear. FIS has not commented on individual applications. The 30 October list is the fifth version since 16 October.

Neutral athletes can only race individual events; relays and team sprints stay closed to them, on the World Cup and at the Falun World Championships.