Three figure skaters from Russia and Belarus have been granted approval to compete in next February’s Winter Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The trio have been granted neutral status under a vetting process by the IOC, which requires athletes to have not actively supported Russia’s war on Ukraine and to sign a commitment to respect the Olympic Charter.
Athletes also cannot have ties to Russian or Belarusian military and state security organisations.
The three granted neutral status by an eligibility panel include 18-year-old Adeliia Petrosian, a medal contender who won an Olympic qualifying event in Beijing in September.
Her teammate, Russian men’s singles champion Petr Gumennik, who also won in Beijing, and Belarus’ Viktoriia Safonova, who took fourth behind Petrosian, have also been approved for the Games.
The qualifying event was the first time Russians could compete at an event run by the sport’s governing body, the International Skating Union (ISU), since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The three skaters are the first athletes from Russia and Belarus to be granted approval to attend the Games.
Many winter sports federations maintain blanket bans on Russian and Belarusian athletes competing, but figure skating has relaxed its rules slightly, permitting the countries to send one athlete in each discipline to the Games if they qualify.
The IOC eligibility process was also used before the Paris Olympics last summer, with athletes competing under the banner of “individual neutral athletes” with no flag or country listed alongside their names.
Petrosian is trained by the controversial coach Eteri Tutberidze, whose former charge Kamila Valieva initially won gold in the team event in Beijing 2022 before being disqualified and receiving a lengthy doping ban.
Valieva returned to competition this winter after her ban expired but has not qualified for the Games.
