Russia names Bolshunov and Stepanova for Ruka. Five of its eight picks are not cleared to race
Russia’s ski federation has named its first eight skiers for the World Cup openers in Ruka (27–29 November) and Trondheim (4–6 December). Aleksandr Bolshunov and Veronika Stepanova are among them. The federation announced on Monday that its coaches’ council had picked them without trials, on one condition: each must be granted neutral status by FIS.
| Athlete | Neutral status (AIN) | Distance points | Sprint points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men | |||
| Aleksandr Bolshunov | No | 3.10 | 30.07 |
| Savelii Korostelev | Yes | 9.51 | 58.77 |
| Sergey Ardashev | No | 34.97 | 60.13 |
| Alexander Terentev | No | 39.68 | 19.29 |
| Women | |||
| Natalia Terenteva | Yes | 7.68 | 34.46 |
| Veronika Stepanova | No | 32.28 | 97.35 |
| Alena Baranova | No | 60.48 | 81.05 |
| Alina Pekletsova | Yes | 93.86 | 260.86 |
Neutral status as on the FIS list of approved neutral athletes, version 23 October, still the current one on Tuesday morning. Points from the second FIS points list of 2026/27.
The remaining places will be decided at the “Yugoria. First Snow” races in Khanty-Mansiysk: 10 km classic on 10 November and 10 km free on 11 November. The federation says its final list for the two weekends will have 20 names, ten men and ten women.
Points are not the problem
All eight have the 150 FIS points or less needed to start a World Cup race. Terentev’s sprint points rank fifth in the world, Bolshunov’s distance points seventh. Except Korostelev, who raced the World Cup as a neutral athlete last season, none of them has an FIS-listed result since spring 2022. Their points date from before Russia’s exclusion.
The barrier is neutral status. Bolshunov applied once before: FIS turned down his application on 24 December 2025, ahead of the Milan-Cortina Olympics, and the CAS ad hoc division ruled in January that it had no jurisdiction to hear his appeal. The Russian side says a new application is with FIS. FIS has not commented. Stepanova had not applied as of 24 October; federation president Dmitry Svishchev said then that she was still deciding. Whether Ardashev, Terentev and Baranova have applied is not public.
What it means
This section is analysis.
On today’s list, Russia can’t send ten per gender. A Russian skier needs both neutral status and qualifying points. Only five men and five women have both: Korostelev, Ilia Semikov, Ivan Gorbunov, Nikita Denisov and Egor Mitroshin, and Terenteva, Dariya Nepryaeva, Ekaterina Nikitina, Pekletsova and Lidiia Gorbunova, as our analysis of the 23 October list showed. That fills five of the six start places per gender in each individual race, but not a squad of ten. The federation’s plan only works if FIS clears more skiers who have points.
The trials are thinner than they look. Six places per gender are on offer in Khanty-Mansiysk. On today’s list, only four men and three women outside the pre-selected eight could actually use one in Ruka. Dariya Nepryaeva, who finished in last season’s top 25 overall, was not pre-selected and has to race for her place.
The pre-selection is a signal, not a decision. Naming Bolshunov and Stepanova changes nothing about whether they can race; only FIS decides that. It does show how the federation ranks its team: on its own judgement, the best Russian line-up for Ruka includes five skiers who are not cleared, one of whom has not applied.
Watch the next FIS list update and the third points list on 12 November. If Bolshunov, Terentev and Stepanova are cleared, Russia’s team for Ruka gets far stronger at the top: Bolshunov won three Olympic golds in Beijing, and Terentev’s sprint points are among the best in the field. Trondheim brings a second question. Norway’s ski federation has asked its government for clarity on visas for Russian athletes, Dagbladet reported.