Russian athletes in winter sports are still suffering greatly due to the inability to obtain full admission to world competitions. However, recently the situation has finally begun to change, which has affected several sports at once. Many fans were really looking forward to and worried about the final decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding Russian figure skaters, and now everything ended in a positive way for us.

Adelia Petrosyan and Pyotr Gumennik are definitely going to Milan and will fight there for medals at the main start of their careers.

The anxiety is gone

The past day brought Russia two positive news at once, one coming early in the morning and the other late in the evening. First, the International Judo Federation (IJF) lifted restrictions on our athletes to compete in competitions under a neutral flag. And closer to night, the IOC made a statement that the Russians Petrosyan and Gumennik were allowed to participate in the 2026 Olympics.

The first news was certainly breakthrough, because the opportunity to compete under the native flag and anthem is very rare nowadays. Nevertheless, judo is a summer discipline, with which Russia in general is doing quite well. In a large number of summer sports we have at least neutral status. But almost everything related to winter was a big problem.

Skaters were a little luckier in this context. Along with ski mountaineering, this sport was among the first where the situation began to move in the right direction. Russians were allowed to qualify for the Olympics, but only in single skating, so two people went to the qualifying tournament in Beijing – Pyotr Gumennik and Adelia Petrosyan. And both coped with their task brilliantly, taking first places in these competitions.

It seemed that this would be the end of the selection pains, but it soon became known that a special group would be created that would consider the possibility of admitting Adelia and Peter to the Games in Milan. And then doubts began to creep in, because everyone understood that in modern realities one could find fault with Russian athletes for absolutely any reason. Fortunately, the difficult wait ended in a positive way.

Petr Gumennik / Photo: © Dmitry Chelyapin / Match TV

Is this not the last positive thing before the Olympics?

The IOC published a press release on the official website, the essence of which was that Petrosyan and Gumennik would be able to perform at the Olympics in Italy in February next year. They managed to pass the test, while the skaters still have to sign the conditions that apply to all athletes. It contains, in particular, such points as compliance with the Olympic Charter and the “peacekeeping mission of the Olympic movement.” It’s nice that the athletes’ coaches, as well as the Belarusian figure skater Victoria Safonova, were allowed to participate in the Games in Milan.

The International Olympic Committee did not create additional obstacles and create a scandal out of the blue. Otherwise they just risked looking stupid. Why then did you even contact the ISU and allow our team to perform in the first place? So the IOC took a major step in favor of Russia, and there is reason to believe that this is not the last movement towards further lifting of sanctions.

After all, just recently CAS eased restrictions on Russian luge, bobsleigh and skeleton athletes. Yes, the IOC was not directly involved here, but it is very naive to believe that all the events are not connected in any way. Who knows, maybe a lot of positive surprises await us before the start of the Olympics in Milan.