Russia is again barred from figure skating worlds. Will the 2026 Olympics be different?

USA Today

26-03-2025

Russia is again barred from figure skating worlds. Will the 2026 Olympics be different?
BOSTON — The 2025 world figure skating championships at TD Garden this week will feature the best skaters, coaches and judges from every corner of the world − with one notable exception.
For the third consecutive year, Russia will be absent.
Since its invasion of Ukraine at the end of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Russia has been largely sidelined from the world of international sports, with prominent international federations moving to either place strict neutrality requirements on the participation of Russians at their world championships or opting to ban them altogether.
In figure skating, their absence has been particularly noticeable. Prior to the country's ban, Russia had won more medals at the world figure skating championships than any other country. And it had been particularly dominant in women's singles, with five of the six world champions between 2015 and 2021 all hailing from Russia.
The continued exclusion of Russia from international figure skating has prompted some of its former athletes to leave and continue competing for other countries. It's opened the door for new talent, including women from Japan and the U.S., to make world podiums. And it's raised questions about when Russian figure skaters might return − and whether such a return might come in time for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina.
"It's something that's completely out of our control," American ice dancer Evan Bates said last week. "We can never control who's going to be let in and what the political ramifications are. It's just completely outside of our scope of control. And the more that we focus on it, it really detracts from where our focus needs to be."
Ice dancers Gleb Smolkin, Diana Davis now compete for Georgia
Over the past three years, the Russian Figure Skating Federation has continued to host its own separate figure skating competitions, including a national championship in December. And although Russia is formally ostracized from this week's world championships, there will continue to be signs of its outsized influence on the sport.
At least six skaters competing in Boston this week previously represented Russia but switched nationalities following the country's sports ban in 2022. That includes ice dancers Gleb Smolkin and Diana Davis, who competed for the Russian Olympic Committee at the 2022 Olympics but now represent Georgia.
"It was pretty difficult, because it was very unclear what's going to happen," Smolkin said. "The only thing that was clear was competing for Russia, we wouldn't be able to for quite a lot of time. And we proved ourselves right, unfortunately."
Smolkin said he and Davis opted to represent Georgia because Davis' mother, Eteri Tutberidze, is of Georgian heritage. (Tutberidze drew scrutiny in Beijing as the coach of burgeoning Russian star Kamila Valieva, whose positive doping test became one of the dominant storylines of the Games.) The ice dancers will continue to represent Georgia even if or when Russia's ban is lifted, Smolkin said.
"There is still a Russian-speaking community inside of the ice, people who are able to speak Russian," he added, when asked about the impact of Russia's formal exclusion from the world championships. "We're just athletes and we're here to perform and that's it."
Russians hopeful they will be allowed to return
The International Olympic Committee allowed some athletes from Russia − and Belarus, which has faced similar bans − to compete as neutrals at the 2024 Summer Olympics, but only if they met a strict set of conditions. Russian leaders, however, have expressed hope that their situation might soon change.
The United States, which had been staunchly supportive of Ukraine during President Joe Biden's time in office, has softened its stance on the war and Russia under Donald Trump. The White House has tried to work with Russia to negotiate an end to the war, and it announced separate agreements with Russia and Ukraine over a ceasefire in the Black Sea on Tuesday.
There is a possibility that the IOC's stance on Russia could similarly shift following the election last week of its new president, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe. Russian president Vladimir Putin and Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko were quick to congratulate Coventry following her win, and Russian sports minister Mikhail Degtyarev expressed hope that a new IOC president would result in a new IOC policy toward Russia.
"We are waiting, in this era of a new leader, for the Olympic movement to become stronger, more independent and more prosperous and that Russia will return to the Olympic podium," Degtyarev said on a messaging app last week, according to Reuters.
When asked specifically about the potential reinstatement of Russia, Coventry only spoke broadly about the need to protect athletes from conflict areas and develop an IOC policy around the issue. She will formally take the office in June.
While the IOC could give the final OK for Russian and Belarussian athletes to return at the 2026 Milan Games, the decision is first in the hands of the International Skating Union, the federation that oversees the qualifying process.
The ISU announced late last year that, following a recommendation by the IOC, it had developed a narrow pathway for Russian athletes to work toward Olympic qualification. That pathway is so narrow, in fact, that it only will allow one athlete or team in each of figure skating's disciplines to compete at a single qualifying event, in Beijing in September. That would mean that, barring any changes, Russia would have no more than six figure skaters at the 2026 Olympics.
"The ISU has maintained its condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine," the organization said in a news release.
In Olympic circles, the general assumption has been that Russia's status in figure skating and other major sports would change when the war in Ukraine ends. And it's unclear, of course, when that end will come or whether it is getting closer.
Ukrainian skater Kyrylo Marsak is skeptical. He said the war upended his life, prompting him to move to Finland to continue training − and, in turn, pulling him away from his family. He said his father is in the Ukrainian military, and he's only able to visit his family about once a year.
"Of course it's making pressure on me, because I'm worrying about them," Marsak said. "This whole situation is really difficult to deal with. But as I said, the skating is something that makes me take it easier."
As for the return of Russian athletes to competition, the 20-year-old said it should happen only when Ukraine is safe.
"We need some pretty good safety guarantees from most countries, from the U.S. and from Europe," he said. "Then Ukrainians could sleep calmly."
Contributing: Reuters
Contact Tom Schad at [e-mail] or on social media @tomschad.bsky.social.