The highly anticipated 2026 Winter Olympics set to take place in Milano, Italy, are less than three months away. In the women’s and men’s figure skating field, three countries demonstrate notable advantage in claiming gold above others. These countries include the USA, Japan, and, contentiously, Russia. 

Technically speaking, though Russia’s national teams are banned from the 2026 Olympics, certain Russian athletes have been permitted by the ISU (International Skating Union) to compete under the title as an Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN). It’s noteworthy to mention that these are not rules that the Olympic Committee has established. These were choices made by the ISU independently while other international sports federations, such as the International Ski Federation, have mandated a complete ban on Russian athletes.

This problematic relationship between Russia and the Olympic Committee has stretched over the span of a decade. During the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, proof of drug sample manipulation was revealed, suggesting validity towards an alleged Russian state-sponsored doping program.  Consequently, Russian national teams were banned while individual athletes competed under the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) starting in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and through the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

This issue was severely further escalated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This brought the Olympic Committee to terminate the ROC’s membership. Now, Russian athletes can only hope to compete registered under AIN in a field that still allows Russians into the field. Two Russian figure skaters were able to secure a spot. Adeliia Petrosian for the women’s and Petr Gumennik for the men’s.

This has provoked much argument and dispute regarding the place Russians hold in the Olympics. Is it unfair to bar citizens from competing for the wrongdoings of their country that they have no control or play in? Or, is it necessary as a demonstration of the Olympic Charter of holding a nation accountable at the expense of the individual? The following are positions argued by each respective stance in this debate:

Figure skaters train their entire lives, sacrificing their education and social life all to get the chance to advance to a global stage as prestigious as the Olympics. To rip that away from them for an aspect of their identity that they have no control over is cruel. It is unfair and unjust since AIN athletes already must prove that they are not affiliated with the military and have not vocally supported their government’s actions.

Contrarily, the Olympics are always an inherent political statement. A missed Olympics is nothing compared to Ukrainian skaters whose training has been disrupted from their rinks being destroyed in air strikes. Potential Ukrainian Olympic contenders have died from the war. The audience already knows who the Russian competitors are. Thus, the AIN flag might as well be equivalent to the Russian one. Allowing athletes from an aggressor state provides them an international platform, a jarring decision that rubs salt into the wounds of Ukrainian athletes.

But the truth is, this decision may not be rooted in righteousness as it seems at face value. Russians completely dominated the sport of figure skating and have performed at an immensely higher level than other countries. During the 2019-2020 competitive season, the sport’s popularity could be attributed to Russian skaters such as Alexandra Trusova, Kamila Valieva, and Anna Scherbkova dominating the podium. The ISU could not retain the same type of viewership since the Russians had been banned from international competition. And as Russia holds their own national competitions, the ISU is losing a significant portion of its audience. Therefore, this decision may have ultimately boiled down to monetary gain.