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โThe IPC can confirm that NPC Russia has been awarded a total of six slots: two in Para alpine skiing (one male, one female), two in Para cross-country skiing (one male, one female), and two in Para snowboard (both male),โ the statement said.
โNPC Belarus has been awarded four slots in total, all in cross-country skiing (one male and three female).โ
In September, the IPC voted to lift partial suspensions of Russia and Belarus.
However, IPC President Andrew Parsons said in November that there would be no athletes from those countries at the Milan Cortina Games because the sportsโ governing bodies had maintained their bans.
The following month, an appeal from Russia saw the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturn a blanket ban imposed by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation โ paving the way for Russians to compete as neutral athletes at the 2026 Olympics, and with their own flag and anthem at the Paralympics.
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The Russian Olympic Committee has been suspended since 2023 by the International Olympic Committee for breaking the Olympic charter by using an administrative land grab to incorporate regional sports bodies in occupied eastern Ukraine.
That decision is under an IOC legal review after the Russian Olympic body amended its statutes and could be overturned within months.
Following a system used in Paris in 2024, Russian athletes are competing at the current Olympics as individual neutral athletes โ using the French acronym AIN โ and without their flag, anthem or team colours.
Russian media reported that Aleksey Bugaev, a three-time Paralympic champion in Alpine skiing, is one of the athletes who has been given a slot along with cross-country skiers Ivan Golubkov and Anastasiia Bagiian, who have both won medals at world championships.
All three returned to competition last month, and both Bugaev and Bagiian have since won World Cup titles.
AP
