FIS clears Olympic champion Spitsov and eleven more Russians. Russia can now fill all its start places in Ruka

FIS has cleared Denis Spitsov, the 2022 Olympic relay champion and a four-time Olympic medallist, to race as a neutral athlete. He is one of 14 cross-country skiers added to the list of approved neutral athletes in its version of 9 November: twelve from Russia and two from Belarus. The list now has 93 cross-country athletes, 69 Russians and 24 Belarusians, up from 79 on 3 November. Nobody was removed.

Aleksandr Bolshunov is still not on it, and neither are Sergey Ardashev, Alexander Terentev, Alena Baranova or Veronika Stepanova. That leaves five of the eight skiers Russia’s coaches pre-selected for Ruka and Trondheim, on condition that FIS clears them, without neutral status.

The new Russians are seven men, Spitsov, Aleksandr Bakurov, Egor Gusak, Danil Nelipa, Dmitrii Ploskonosov, Arsenii Pozdeev and Timur Shakirzianov, and five women, Evgeniia Krupitskaia, Elizaveta Eremeeva, Natalia Kramarenko, Irina Mitroshina and Anastasiia Prokofeva. The two Belarusians, Aliaksandr Aksionau and Stanislau Mahlysh, were both born in 2009. FIS also cleared five more Russian coaches and support staff, among them national team coaches Aleksandr Kravchenko and Vladimir Frolov, which takes the cross-country staff list from 39 to 44.

Three new skiers with World Cup points

A skier needs 150 FIS points or less to start a World Cup race: distance points for distance races, distance or sprint points for sprints. We checked all 14 new names against the current points list, the second of 2026/27, valid until 11 November.

The other eleven have no points on the current list. Spitsov’s distance points rank 20th in the world, the second-best of any cleared Russian man after Savelii Korostelev. Krupitskaia’s rank 55th among women, and she is inside the limit in sprint too, by three and a half points.

That gives Russia these cleared skiers with the points to start in Ruka on 27–29 November, ranked by distance points:

• Men (9): Savelii Korostelev (9.51), Denis Spitsov (13.77), Ilia Semikov (24.22), Ivan Gorbunov (33.02), Nikita Denisov (37.75), Nikita Rodionov (42.97), Egor Mitroshin (44.97), Aleksandr Bakurov (66.85), Viacheslav Mamichev (119.01)
• Women (6): Natalia Terenteva (7.68), Dariya Nepryaeva (15.62), Evgeniia Krupitskaia (48.17), Ekaterina Nikitina (86.60), Alina Pekletsova (93.86), Lidiia Gorbunova (102.56)

What it means for Ruka

Russia has six start places per gender in each individual World Cup race. Until Monday’s update it had only five eligible women, so one women’s place would have stayed empty. Krupitskaia closes that gap, and for the first time this autumn Russia can fill every individual start in Ruka on both sides. The men now have three more eligible skiers than places, which turns the men’s team into a real selection.

The selection is happening this week. The “Yugoria. First Snow” races in Khanty-Mansiysk, a 10 km classic on Tuesday and a 10 km free on Wednesday, decide who joins the pre-selected skiers in the federation’s squad of ten men and ten women for Ruka and Trondheim. In Tuesday’s women’s race Lidiia Gorbunova won in 28:15.5, 10.8 seconds ahead of Alina Pekletsova, with Ekaterina Nikitina third. All three are among the six cleared women with points. Head coach Yuri Borodavko told RIA Novosti that the cleared skiers have “a big desire” to get to the World Cup: “For many it is a dream, because they have worked towards it for a long time.”

The numbers can still shift. FIS publishes a new points list, the third of the season, on 12 November, and it is expected to be the list in force at Ruka. Points that depend on old results can change or drop off between lists.

Bolshunov’s case is unchanged. FIS has not published a decision, and only a formal refusal could be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He won the freestyle sprint in Khanty-Mansiysk on Sunday and was on the start list for Tuesday’s classic selection race, still without the status he needs to race abroad. Our report from Sunday has the background.

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. That means Spitsov, who won his Olympic gold in the relay, can only return in individual races.