Russian athletes excluded from luge at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics

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Russian luge athletes will be banned from competing at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics even as individuals with neutral status, the sliding sport's governing body decided Wednesday.

The International Luge Federation has kept Russian athletes from competing in major international luge events — such as World Cups and world championships — since the 2021-22 season in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war.

At a meeting of the FIL congress in Tampere, Finland, officials voted 24-7, with one invalid ballot, to extend that ban that was first put in place in 2022 and extended again in 2024. A second vote then took place on the notion of letting Russian sliders try to compete under a neutral flag at the upcoming Olympics; that was defeated 24-8.

“The Congress has made its position clear,” FIL president Einars Fogelis said. “This outcome reflects our collective responsibility to uphold fair and safe competition. We fully respect the diversity of views within our community, especially from our athletes.”

The Milan-Cortina Olympics open on Feb. 6.

“The vote today by the FIL to exclude Russian athletes from competing this season, including the Olympic Games, was not made arbitrarily or without deep discussion — information and input from the athletes, FIL members, as well as event organizers was collected and considered," USA Luge CEO Scott Riewald said Wednesday. "Ultimately, the decision was made in the name of athlete safety and ensuring fairness of competition.”

It’s not clear if the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation will follow luge's lead. Russian sliders have also not competed in those sports at the top international levels since the end of the 2021-22 season.

Also unclear: if any Russian sleds would have had a legitimate hope of qualifying even if they were allowed to try. Without being on the circuits in more than three years, it’s impossible to assess which athletes would be competitive enough to secure Olympic bids.

There were 28 sliders from Russia — 10 in luge, six in skeleton and 12 in bobsled — at the 2022 Beijing Games, though they competed under the Russian Olympic Committee flag and not the actual Russian flag. That was part of the sanctions levied against Russia for the state-sponsored doping scandal that overshadowed the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

The Beijing Games closed four days before the attack on Ukraine started, and Russian athlete Tatyana Ivanova won a bronze medal in women's singles luge.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Russia and military ally Belarus were excluded from team sports but athletes in individual sports could apply for neutral status to compete. A total of 32 accepted invitations from the International Olympic Committee after passing eligibility tests that included not publicly supporting the war and not having ties to military and state security agencies.

The FIL reviewed the results of an anonymous polling of luge athletes who were surveyed about the prospect of letting Russian athletes resume sliding. It said the survey “revealed a broad range of concerns and opinions regarding safety, Olympic quotas, anti-doping compliance, and fairness.”

“Athletes hold a wide range of views,” FIL athletes’ commission chair Leon Felderer said. “There are many concerns and arguments on both sides.”

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AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this story.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics