FIS clears Natalia Terenteva and 21 more Russians. Russia can now almost fill its World Cup quota

FIS has more than doubled the number of Russian cross-country skiers cleared to race this winter. The list of approved neutral athletes dated 23 October has 37 cross-country athletes: 35 from Russia and two from Belarus. The previous version, from 20 October, had 15. All 22 new names are Russian, and nobody was removed. Across all FIS disciplines, the list now covers 175 athletes, plus coaches and support staff.

The biggest name among the new ones is Natalia Terenteva. As Natalia Nepryaeva, she won the overall World Cup and the Tour de Ski in 2021/22 and was part of Russia’s gold-medal relay at the Beijing Olympics. She has not raced a World Cup since Lahti in February 2022. RIA Novosti reported that the 31-year-old returned to competition in Russia in September after a break to have a child. She is not to be confused with Dariya Nepryaeva, who raced on the World Cup last season.

Aleksandr Bolshunov and Veronika Stepanova are still not on the list.

Who can actually start

To start a World Cup race, a skier needs 150 FIS points or less on the points list valid for that race. A week ago, our check found that only five of the 13 Russians then cleared met that mark. We have now checked the 22 new names against the current list, the second of 2026/27, valid until 11 November.

Five of them qualify. Every one of them still has points from before Russia’s exclusion: none has an FIS-listed result since the Russian championships in spring 2022.

Terenteva’s points rank 11th in the world in both distance and sprint. The other 17 new names, most of them born between 2005 and 2009, have no FIS points.

That brings the number of Russians who could start in Ruka on 27–29 November under the normal rule to ten, five per gender:

• Women: Terenteva, Dariya Nepryaeva, Ekaterina Nikitina, Alina Pekletsova, Lidiia Gorbunova
• Men: Savelii Korostelev, Ilia Semikov, Ivan Gorbunov, Nikita Denisov, Egor Mitroshin

Russia has six start places per gender in each individual race, the same quota it had in 2021/22.

The third points list, which takes over on 12 November, is expected to be the one in force at Ruka. The figures above are from the list valid today.

What it means

This section is analysis.

The quota problem has almost gone. A week ago, Russia could fill about half of its women’s places and a third of its men’s. Now it can fill five of six on both sides. Our earlier conclusion that the full quota was “a promise for later in the season, not for Ruka” no longer holds.

Terenteva is the first real test at the top. Before 2022 she was one of the most consistent skiers on the circuit, with podiums in sprint and distance. She is now four and a half years removed from her last World Cup and returning after pregnancy. Her points from 2022 are excellent, but they say nothing about her form today. Ruka will.

The men’s side gets deeper, not stronger at the top. Semikov, 33, raced the World Cup, the Olympics and the World Championships before 2022. Gorbunov and Mitroshin have never started a World Cup race; their points come from Russian and lower-level FIS races before the exclusion. None of the three has raced internationally for more than four years.

Bolshunov and Stepanova remain the story to watch. Both have the points, as we reported last week. Neutral status is the only barrier. With 22 skiers added in a single update, the list is moving fast, but FIS has still not said anything about Bolshunov’s application. Stepanova has not applied.

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.

Correction, 25 October 2026: An earlier version said FIS had not commented on either Bolshunov’s or Stepanova’s application. Stepanova has not applied for neutral status; she says she is still deciding. Our report.