Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 19, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Russians will compete as neutral athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics due to the IOC's suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee.
MILAN, Italy (Reuters) - Russians will compete as neutral independent athletes without a national flag or anthem at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said on Friday.
The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee in October 2023 for recognising regional Olympic councils for Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine - Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
"We also spoke about the Independent Neutral Athletes. This will be nothing new," IOC President Kirsty Coventry told a press conference. "The Executive board will take the exact same approach that was done in Paris (2024 Olympics). Nothing has changed."
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Russians will compete as neutral independent athletes without a national flag or anthem at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee in October 2023 for recognizing regional Olympic councils for Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
Kirsty Coventry stated that the approach to Independent Neutral Athletes will remain the same as in previous instances, indicating continuity in policy.
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