{"id":2682,"date":"2026-06-30T21:47:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/2682\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T21:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:47:21","slug":"russian-and-belarusian-skaters-can-return-to-international-events-as-neutrals-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/2682\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian and Belarusian skaters can return to international events as neutrals"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAUSANNE, Switzerland \u2014 Russian skaters can return to world championships and Grand Prix events next season as neutral athletes for the first time since the full military invasion of Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The International Skating Union said Tuesday<\/a> it was lifting a ban since February 2022 on skaters and officials from Russia and Belarus taking part in its events, though without their national symbols of flag and anthem.<\/p>\n

Still, athletes could face issues getting entry visas from countries hosting ISU events.<\/p>\n

In 2027, the world championships of figure skating is hosted by Finland and South Korea hosts in short track. China will host the next speed skating worlds.<\/p>\n

The ISU cited the success of some skaters from Russia and Belarus qualifying for and competing at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics<\/a> “without related incident.”<\/p>\n

In figure skating in Milan, Russians Adeliia Petrosian<\/a> and Petr Gumennik were cleared to compete with neutral status and both finished sixth in their individual events. Viktoriia Safonova of Belarus also competed with Individual Neutral Athlete status.<\/p>\n

Guidance from the International Olympic Committee also was noted by the ISU. The IOC advised sports bodies<\/a> on May 7 to readmit athletes from Belarus without vetting for neutral status.<\/p>\n

Skaters approved with neutral status must not have \u201cat any time since February 2022, actively and publicly supported that war,\u201d the ISU said.<\/p>\n

The governing body said the decision \u201cdoes not affect the ISU\u2019s continued condemnation of armed conflict, nor the ISU\u2019s ongoing support for Ukrainian skaters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exclusion of Russian and Belarus skaters since 2022 was, the ISU said, not a punishment for the war but a decision taken \u201cexclusively in the interests of the safety of participants and the integrity of the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Winter Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAUSANNE, Switzerland \u2014 Russian skaters can return to world championships and Grand Prix events next season as neutral…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1274,1276,1275,1277,1273,158,65],"class_list":["post-2682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","tag-figure-skating","tag-isu-figure-skating-world-championships","tag-skating","tag-skating-isu-russia-belarus-neutral","tag-sports","tag-war-and-unrest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}