Sweden's ski federation wants Russian skiers kept out of the Falun World Championships, via the visa office
The Swedish Ski Association is trying to keep Russian skiers out of next winter’s World Championships in Falun. It can’t do that through FIS, so it is asking the Swedish government to refuse them visas.
Secretary general Pernilla Bonde confirmed the push to SVT Sport on Wednesday. The federation has taken the idea to the Swedish Sports Confederation (RF), which has the contacts in government. “We have raised the issue with RF. And perhaps the issue can be raised with the Foreign Ministry, to look at which countries are allowed to enter the country,” Bonde said.
Toralf Nilsson, RF’s vice chair, told SVT that the confederation is in contact with the Government Offices and that there is a dialogue on the issue. The government has not commented. SVT said it had asked migration minister Johan Forssell, who is responsible for visa matters, for a response.
Bonde was frank about why the federation is going this way. “Since it has been decided, we have to follow it, but it is not a decision we think is good,” she told SVT about FIS’s rules for neutral athletes. To Expressen she called the visa route “probably the only way to go”. SVT reported that the federation has also discussed the approach with the other Nordic federations that host World Cup races.
Who it would affect
The FIS list of approved neutral athletes was updated again on 20 October. Its cross-country section is unchanged at 15 athletes, 13 Russians and two Belarusians. The number of cleared cross-country coaches and support staff has more than doubled, from eight to 19. Aleksandr Bolshunov and Veronika Stepanova are still not on the list.
The best-known name is Savelii Korostelev, fourth in the skiathlon at the Milano Cortina Olympics. He has already raced in Falun as a neutral athlete: on 1 March this year he finished fourth in the World Cup skiathlon there, four seconds behind Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, at the venue of next winter’s World Championships. A week later he was third in the 10 km classic in Lahti, Finland.
“It is sad when people try to mix sport and politics,” Korostelev told SVT.
Not a new idea
The Swedish federation floated the same idea before that Falun World Cup. Bonde told Expressen in February that refusing entry visas was what remained once the Court of Arbitration for Sport had ruled in the Russians’ favour, but that the federation had no formal position. Now it has taken the idea to RF.
Visas are a decision for the Swedish state, not the ski federation. Russian citizens need a Schengen visa to enter Sweden. A Schengen visa issued by one member state is generally valid for the whole area. That was how it worked in Lahti last March. Finland strictly limits travel by Russian citizens, but the president of the Finnish Ski Federation, Sirpa Korkatti, told Ilta-Sanomat then that no Russian athlete had asked the federation for a visa invitation. The paper concluded that the team most likely already held valid Schengen visas.
Ebba Andersson, who is building her season around a home World Championships, told Expressen it was a “really difficult question” and that she was glad the federation handled it so she doesn’t have to take a position. “I’ve raced against Russian skiers in the World Cup. So whether it’s the World Championships or the World Cup wouldn’t make a difference, I feel,” she said.
Neutral athletes can only race individual events in Falun. Relays and team sprints remain closed to them under FIS rules. Our explainer on the 2026/27 conditions has the details.
Update, 22 October 2026: Migration minister Johan Forssell told SVT Sport on Wednesday that “the government is now analysing what legal options exist to be able to refuse visas to Sweden for Russian and Belarusian athletes”. Falun’s championship chief Kajsa Sjösvärd told the news agency TT that Russian participation “places very high demands on us” for security, and that the uncertain world situation has already raised the organisers’ costs.
Update, 26 October 2026: Forssell discussed visas for Russian athletes with his Nordic counterparts on 22 and 23 October and told Expressen a meeting on “concrete measures” would follow soon. Claims in Russian and Nordic media that FIS has warned it could move the championships are not backed by any FIS statement on record; FIS’s neutral-athlete policy leaves visas to the host country. Our report.