Earlier this fall, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced that no athletes would be allowed to compete under a neutral flag in the Olympics – and thus there would be no place for either Russian or Belarusian biathletes.
The reason is that only those who are already approved to compete in IBU's own competitions, such as the World Cup, can qualify for the Olympics. Since skaters from Russia and Belarus have been suspended since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they are excluded.
"In the IBU's competition rules, there is no room for neutral athletes," the federation wrote in a statement.
This would suggest that the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) will not go to CAS to get active athletes to participate in the Olympics. Because it was precisely the words “politically neutral” in the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) statutes that prompted the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to grant Russians and Belarusians the right to compete in the Olympics in Milan and Cortina in February.
In biathlon, Russians and Belarusians have been banned from international competition since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
