Individual Neutral Athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Name used for Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Individual Neutral Athletes (French: Athlètes individuels neutres, AIN) is the name used to represent approved individual Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned those nations' previous designations due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that continued into the duration of the games. The IOC country code is AIN, from the French athlètes individuels neutres.[1]
| Individual Neutral Athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics | |
|---|---|
The final version of the AIN flag assigned by the IOC on 19 March 2024 | |
| IOC code | AIN |
| NOC | Athlètes Individuels Neutres |
| in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy 6 February 2026 – 22 February 2026 | |
| Competitors | 20 (6 men and 14 women) in 8 sports |
| Flag bearer | N/A (not participating in Parade of Nations) |
| Medals |
|
| Winter Olympics appearances (overview) | |
| Other related appearances | |
 Soviet Union (1956–1988) Unified Team (1992) Russia (1994–2014) Olympic Athletes from Russia (2018) ROC (2022)
 Belarus (1994–2022) | |
The delegation competed under the same conditions as for the 2024 Summer Olympics. It was banned from using the Olympic flag and Olympic anthem, which was the usual custom for neutral designated athletes in previous games. They instead used a teal flag depicting a circular AIN emblem and a one-off instrumental anthem, both assigned by the IOC.[2][3][4] Individual neutral athletes had to be first background checked and then approved by each sport's international federation, and then by a special panel created by the IOC. As individual athletes, they could not compete in team events.[5] The designation was also disallowed from marching in the Parade of Nations during the opening ceremony and from receiving an official ranking in the medal tables.[3]
While the flag uses the singular wording "Individual Neutral Athlete", the IOC uses the plural wording "Individual Neutral Athletes" in prose.[6]
Background
Timeline
In December 2024, the International Skating Union announced that athletes from Belarus and Russia would be allowed to participate in events at the 2026 Winter Olympics; if qualified, they would compete under the Individual Neutral Athlete banner, as was done at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.[7] At the 2024 Summer Olympics, 15 Russian athletes and 17 Belarusian athletes competed as individual neutral athletes.[8]
In the same month, the International Ski Mountaineering Federation announced that five Russian ski mountaineers would be allowed to compete as individual neutral athletes in the 2026 Winter Olympics qualifiers.[9]
The IOC announced in September 2025 that Individual Neutral Athletes would compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics under the same rules as for the 2024 Summer Olympics, including the same eligibility requirements, teal flag, anthem, and the same restriction disallowing them from competing in team events.[3]
Controversies
On 29 January 2026, Latvian Public Media, which is a part of the Public Broadcasting of Latvia, announced it would not cover the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes competing as Individual Neutral Athletes, including their individual events. Results and rankings would be displayed, but with such athletes missing. Except for situations when complete separation is not possible, live broadcasts would be halted during Russian and Belarusian athletes' performances. Whenever this happened, the LTV7 coverage would either switch to a different sport, air full-length interviews with Latvian athletes, or shift to other content. Broadcasts could also be stopped for advertisement breaks, and live Olympic programming could also end earlier than advertised.[10] Earlier that month, Tom Circenis, the TV3 Group's director of sports programming, confirmed that the production team of their coverage would stop their Olympic broadcasts on linear channels whenever there was a Russian and Belarusian athlete competing in an individual contest (where competitors compete one at a time) and go straight to a full-length commercial break each time, describing this as an editorial decision coordinated with the Latvian Olympic Committee. The policy that was written up for the coverage constitutes a partial boycott in response to the participation of neutral athletes from "aggressor countries". TV3 also decided that Latvia’s performances in team events such as bobsleigh and ice hockey were the main priority, and not necessarily those of individual athletes. This was not new, as additional commercial breaks were added into coverage of the European Luge Championships the previous week during Russian athletes' runs.[11][12]
Medalists
| Medal | Name | Country | Sport | Event | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Silver | Nikita Filippov | Russia | Ski mountaineering | Men's sprint | 19 February |
Competitors
The following is the list of number of competitors participating at the Games per sport/discipline.
20 competitors from the following nations competed under the AIN banner:
- Belarus – 7 competitors
- Russia – 13 competitors[13]
The following is a list of the number of Individual Neutral Athletes that participated at the Games:
| Sport | Men | Women | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belarus | Russia | Belarus | Russia | ||
| Alpine skiing | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Cross-country skiing | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Figure skating | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Freestyle skiing | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Luge | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Short-track speed skating | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Ski mountaineering | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Speed skating | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Total | 0 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 20 |
Alpine skiing
Two female alpine skiers and one male alpine skier qualified as Individual Neutral Athletes through the basic quota.[14]
| Athlete | From | Event | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | |||
| Simon Efimov | Russia | Men's slalom | DNF | |||||
| Julia Pleshkova | Women's downhill | N/a | 1:39.69 | 22 | ||||
| Women's super-G | 1:26.32 | 19 | ||||||
| Maria Shkanova | Belarus | Women's slalom | 51.86 | 43 | 56.08 | 37 | 1:47.94 | 37 |
Cross-country skiing
Following the completion of the 2025–26 FIS Cross-Country World Cup in the first World Cup period (28 November – 14 December 2025), a further two female athletes and one male athlete qualified as Individual Neutral Athletes.[15][16]
Distance
| Athlete | From | Event | Classical | Freestyle | Final | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Deficit | Rank | |||
| Savelii Korostelev | Russia | Men's 10 km freestyle | N/a | 21:42.3 | +1:06.1 | 15 | |||
| Men's 20 km skiathlon | 23:24.7 | 6 | 22:23.6 | 4 | 46:14.6 | +3.6 | 4 | ||
| Men's 50 km classical | N/a | 2:10:23.1 | +3:38.3 | 5 | |||||
| Hanna Karaliova | Belarus | Women's 10 km freestyle | N/a | 25:59.3 | +3:10.1 | 45 | |||
| Women's 20 km skiathlon | 30:00.5 | 35 | 29:12.9 | 34 | 59:45.6 | +6:00.4 | 34 | ||
| Dariya Nepryaeva | Russia | Women's 10 km freestyle | N/a | 24:45.0 | +1:55.8 | 21 | |||
| Women's 20 km skiathlon | 29:01.4 | 20 | 28:07.7 | 19 | 57:41.3 | +3:56.1 | 17 | ||
| Women's 50 km classical | N/a | Disqualified | |||||||
Sprint
| Athlete | From | Event | Qualification | Quarterfinal | Semifinal | Final | Rank | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | ||||
| Savelii Korostelev | Russia | Men's sprint | 3:19.88 | 35 | Did not advance | |||||
| Hanna Karaliova | Belarus | Women's sprint | 3:57.25 | 48 | ||||||
| Dariya Nepryaeva | Russia | 3:51.60 | 36 | |||||||
Figure skating
One Individual Neutral Athlete qualified in men's singles and two in women's singles at the ISU Skate to Milano Figure Skating Qualifier 2025 in Beijing, China.[17][18][19]
| Athlete | From | Event | SP | FP | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | Rank | Points | Rank | Points | Rank | |||
| Petr Gumennik | Russia | Men's singles | 86.72 | 12 Q | 184.49 | 4 | 271.21 | 6 |
| Adeliia Petrosian | Women's singles | 72.89 | 5 Q | 141.64 | 5 | 214.53 | 6 | |
| Viktoriia Safonova | Belarus | 54.57 | 26 | Did not advance | ||||
Freestyle skiing
| Athlete | From | Event | Qualification | Final | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jump 1 | Jump 2 | Best | Rank | Final 1 | Final 2 | ||||||||
| Points | Rank | Points | Points | Jump 1 | Jump 2 | Best | Rank | Points | Rank | ||||
| Anastasiya Andryianava | Belarus | Women's aerials | 74.02 | 15 | 70.39 | 74.02 | 16 | Did not advance | |||||
| Anna Derugo | 58.90 | 18 | 71.63 | 71.63 | 17 | ||||||||
| Hanna Huskova | 88.29 | 7 | 82.73 | 88.29 | 8 Q | 86.44 | 100.29 | 100.29 | 8 | Did not advance | |||
Luge
| Athlete | From | Event | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | |||
| Pavel Repilov | Russia | Men's singles | 53.861 | 17 | 53.847 | 15 | 53.692 | 16 | 53.563 | 11 | 3:34.963 | 14 |
| Daria Olesik | Women's singles | 53.289 | 13 | 53.362 | 15 | 53.348 | 14 | 53.211 | 14 | 3:33.210 | 13 | |
Short-track speed skating
Two short-track speed skaters (one per gender) qualified as Individual Neutral Athletes after the conclusion of the 2025–26 ISU Short Track World Tour.[20]
| Athlete | From | Event | Heat | Quarterfinal | Semifinal | Final | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | |||
| Ivan Posashkov | Russia | Men's 1000 m | PEN | Did not advance | ||||||
| Men's 1500 m | N/a | 2:19.117 | 5 | Did not advance | ||||||
| Alena Krylova | Women's 500 m | 1:06.997 | 4 | Did not advance | ||||||
| Women's 1000 m | 1:28.495 | 3 q | 2:31.857 | 4 ADV | 2:10.169 | 5 QB | 1:31.702 | 9 | ||
Ski mountaineering
One male ski mountaineer qualified as an Individual Neutral Athlete through the 2025 ISMF World Championships.[21][22]
| Athlete | From | Event | Heat | Semifinal | Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | |||
| Nikita Filippov | Russia | Men's sprint | 2:39.84 | 2 Q | 2:34.53 | 2 Q | 2:35.55 | |
Speed skating
Three female speed skaters qualified as Individual Neutral Athletes through performances at the 2025–26 ISU Speed Skating World Cup.[23]
| Athlete | From | Event | Race | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | |||
| Kseniia Korzhova | Russia | Women's 3000 m | 4:05.84 | 12 |
| Maryna Zuyeva | Belarus | 4:07.09 | 15 | |
| Women's 5000 m | 6:57.70 | 6 | ||
Mass start
| Athlete | From | Event | Semifinal | Final | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | Time | Rank | Points | Time | Rank | |||
| Anastasiia Semenova | Russia | Women's | 1 | 8:45.91 | 9 | Did not advance | ||
| Maryna Zuyeva | Belarus | 0 | 8:39.63 | 11 | ||||