June 30, Pozirk. The International Skating Union (ISU) Council has allowed Belarusian and Russian athletes to participate in international sailing competitions in the 2026/27 season as neutral athletes.
“Athletes representing Russia and Belarus will be able to compete without items of state recognition, namely national flags, national kit and national anthems,” the Council says in a statement. “Participation will be dependent on no evidence of breaches of athletes’ neutral status, which reinforces the primacy of fair sport on the ice.”
Quotas of athletes will be limited to the same terms as if both member federations were participating in their first season of skating competitions, the statement says, adding that this is due to their absence from ISU events for more than the maximum three-year period and their inability to accrue ranking points during that time.
The ISU will keep conditions at its events under continuous review and will relax restrictions further only where it is satisfied that no safety or integrity issues arise, and reserves the right to reintroduce or increase restrictive measures should such situations emerge, the statement says.
The Council notes that the ban on officials in Belarus and Russia remains in place. At the same time, it acknowledges the “need to develop a pathway for these officials to return to their duties and is developing such a plan.”
In reaching its decision, the Council also took into account developments across the Olympic Movement and the differing approaches of other International Federations, including instances in which the lifting of restrictions has given rise to incidents at competitions, as well as the participation of neutral athletes in the 2025/26 Olympic qualification events and at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 without related incident, the statement says.
On May 7, 2026, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) lifted recommendations to restrict the participation of Belarusian athletes, including teams, in competitions by international federations and international sports event organizers. Ukraine expressed protest and disappointment with the IOC decision, stressing that it contradicted the fundamental principles of justice, responsibility and Olympic values.
When Russia launched a full-scale war on Ukraine with the help of authorities in Minsk in February 2022, the IOC urged sports federations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from all competitions. Later, it recommended that some of them could be allowed as neutral athletes under certain conditions, such as not supporting the war.
All restrictions on Belarusian athletes have been lifted by the international governing bodies for karate, gymnastics, fencing, cycling, dance sport, billiards, water skiing, boxing, sailing, muay thai, modern pentathlon and volleyball, as well as the International University Sports Federation, under whose auspices the Summer and Winter World University Games will take place in 2027.
However, the International Tennis Federation and World Athletics have maintained restrictions imposed in connection with Russia’s war against Ukraine and the Belarusian regime’s role in it. Belarus’ national soccer team as well as soccer clubs are also subject to restrictions, playing their international “home” games at neutral venues.
