Neutral Russian and Belarusian athletes in 2026/27: the rules and what they mean

Russian and Belarusian skiers will be allowed into FIS competitions again in 2026/27, as neutral individuals and under conditions the FIS Council set itself in September. That is a change in how they got there, not only in whether they compete. Last season they were readmitted because a court ordered it. This season FIS made the decision.

How we got here

The timeline, from FIS, Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and IOC documents:

• 21 October 2025: By a majority in a secret ballot, the FIS Council voted against letting Russian and Belarusian athletes compete as Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) in qualification events for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics.
• 2 December 2025: CAS upheld an appeal brought by the Russian Ski Association and others. It ruled that Russian and Belarusian athletes and support personnel who meet the IOC’s AIN eligibility criteria must be allowed into Olympic qualification events and the Games.
• 11 December 2025: FIS asked for clarification and received an amended CAS decision. It ordered FIS to admit athletes and support personnel of Russian sporting nationality who meet the AIN criteria to all FIS events, not just Olympic qualifiers.
• Milano Cortina 2026: The IOC invited three cross-country AINs: Daria Nepriaeva and Savelii Korostelev with Russian passports, and Hanna Karaliova with a Belarusian passport. All three accepted.
• 1–2 September 2026: Meeting in Thun, Switzerland, the FIS Council set the conditions for Belarusian and Russian athletes in 2026/27.

Nepryaeva (spelled Nepriaeva by the IOC) raced the 2025/26 World Cup as an AIN and finished 22nd in the women’s Overall standings with 761 points, according to FIS.

The 2026/27 conditions

According to the FIS Council decision and the FIS Individual Neutral Athlete Policy:

• Athletes and support personnel must sign a declaration of neutrality based on principles set by FIS. FIS will monitor compliance, and breaches can be sanctioned.
• Participation is limited to individual events. National teams from Russia and Belarus are not eligible.
• No national symbols: no flags, anthems or national uniforms.
• Athletes must meet all existing anti-doping requirements.
• Athletes apply directly to FIS for AIN status. The Russian and Belarusian national ski associations play no part in registering them. If FIS finds an athlete meets the criteria, it issues a licence to compete as an AIN.

FIS has not published a confirmed list of approved cross-country AINs for 2026/27. We will report names once FIS confirms them.

Analysis: what it means for racing

This section is analysis, not reporting.

Fewer athletes than the headlines suggest. Strict individual vetting, no national team and no federation behind the entry: this framework produces a small number of athletes, not a returning team. Only three cross-country AINs went to Milano Cortina. A full national squad is not possible under these rules.

No relays or team sprints. Because participation is limited to individual events, AINs are excluded from the Davos Team Sprint and the Engadin Mixed Relay. The same restriction applies to team events at FIS competitions generally, including the World Championships in Falun.

Points and standings will shift a little, not a lot. Each AIN who scores World Cup points pushes others down the results list. At the top of the sport the effect is marginal. Further down the field it can matter: for athletes on the edge of the points, World Cup start quotas or national selection criteria, one or two strong neutral athletes in a race are a real factor. National selection rules differ, and we haven’t checked them all.

Nepryaeva is the clearest test case. She finished 22nd overall in 2025/26, a season in which AIN participation was only cleared by CAS in December. Over a full season she could finish higher in the standings, but we won’t predict results. What her 2025/26 numbers show is that a neutral athlete can score steadily at World Cup level.

The politics hasn’t gone away. The 2025 decision came from the court, not the federation. That FIS has now set conditions itself suggests the question is moving from legal dispute to administration. Federations, athletes and organisers still hold strong and differing views, and we’ll report them where they are stated on the record.

How XC Ski News will handle it

We’ll report AIN results like any other results, using the designation FIS uses in its official results. We won’t attribute nationality symbols that the rules don’t allow. Where the story involves politics, we’ll stick to documented decisions and on-the-record statements, with links.