Two CAS panels found the FIS Council's blanket exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes by nationality discriminatory and in breach of the FIS Statutes; the appeals were only partly upheld.
Twelve named Russian athletes - six ski athletes and six para-athletes - appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on 5 November 2025, together with the Russian Ski Association and the Russian Paralympic Committee. Their appeal, CAS 2025/A/11915, was against a resolution of 21 October 2025 in which the Council of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) resolved not to permit athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part as individual neutral athletes (AIN) in FIS qualification events for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The Belarusian Ski Union and others appealed separately in CAS 2025/A/11931.
On 2 December 2025 two CAS panels issued their decisions. CAS stated: "Both CAS Panels found that the FIS Statutes require the FIS to be politically neutral and that the FIS Council did not provide sufficient legal justification for the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes and para-athletes. Consequently, a blanket ban on athletes and para-athletes based on nationality was found to be discriminatory and in violation of FIS Statues." The misspelling "Statues" is in the original.
The panels ruled that the athletes should be allowed to take part in FIS events, including Milano Cortina 2026 qualification, "but only in strict compliance with the International Olympic Committee AIN eligibility criteria".
The relief was partial. In CAS 2025/A/11915 the appeal was partially upheld and the FIS resolution partially set aside; it was confirmed "only to the extent that it prohibits Russian athletes who do not satisfy the criteria established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for participation as individual neutral athletes (AIN)". The participation orders named the twelve individuals rather than Russian athletes generally.
On the para-athletes, CAS noted that the International Paralympic Committee was not a party and has no AIN framework, and that the procedure with the Russian parties offered only the choice between participation on the same terms as other para-athletes and no participation at all. The panel "had no viable alternative but to uphold this request": Russian para-athletes should participate "under the same conditions as any other para-athletes".
The operative part did not stand as first notified. FIS filed a request for interpretation of it on 3 December 2025. The request was partially granted on 8 December 2025, and a new operative part with an amended paragraph 2 was issued on 11 December 2025. FIS's requests concerning Belarusian athletes and para-athletes were denied, because the panel in 11915 had no jurisdiction to interpret the other panel's decision. The two cases were decided by separate panels, so the Russian outcome should not be read as identical to the Belarusian one. CAS published the reasoned awards, dated 20 February 2026, on 27 February 2026.
A further CAS media release of 29 January 2026 records how the individual test was applied afterwards. FIS constituted an Individual Neutral Athlete Eligibility Review Panel, which on 24 December 2025 declined AIN status to the cross-country skier Aleksandr Bolshunov. His application to the CAS Ad hoc Division was dismissed on 29 January 2026 for lack of jurisdiction, on the ground that it fell outside the division's temporal remit, and so was not decided on the merits.
Sources
- Court of Arbitration for Sport, 2 December 2025
Where it stands
Resolved in the appellants' favor in part: the bar by nationality was found discriminatory and in breach of the federation's own statutes, but the appeal was only partially upheld and participation remained conditional on the IOC's AIN eligibility criteria, which CAS did not set aside. The operative part notified on 2 December 2025 was itself corrected - FIS requested an interpretation on 3 December 2025, it was partially granted on 8 December 2025, and a new operative part with an amended paragraph 2 was issued on 11 December 2025. The cited sources record no challenge before the Swiss Federal Tribunal; the full awards are published as CAS 2025/A/11915 and CAS 2025/A/11931 at https://www.tas-cas.org/en/jurisprudence/recent-decisions.