The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected Russian cross-country skiing star Alexander Bolshunov’s last-ditch attempt to be allowed to compete as an Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The decision brings an end to a four-year saga about Bolshunov’s eligibility to defend the three Olympic titles he won at the 2022 Games in Beijing, where he was the Russian Olympic Committee team’s flag bearer in the closing ceremony.
Like all Russian athletes, his hopes of competing in Milan Cortina have been in doubt ever since his nation invaded Ukraine, four days after that closing ceremony, as the International Olympic Committee promptly banned Russia and its close ally Belarus for multiple breaches of its rules.
Bolshunov’s hopes rose early in December when CAS overturned the International Ski and Snowboard Federation’s (FIS) competition ban on Belarusian and Russian athletes, a move that opened the possibility of qualification for the 2026 Games.
However, earning enough points to make the starting line in Italy was only half the battle, as Belarusian and Russian athletes also had to demonstrate to the FIS Individual Neutral Eligibility Review Panel that they had no connection with the war and had not shown any public support for it.
This was always going to be a high bar to clear for Bolshunov, as he is a captain in the Russian army and appeared on stage in a pro-war rally in Moscow in 2022, and his application was rejected on Dec. 24.
Bolshunov, who won a total of five medals in Beijing and another four at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, filed an appeal against that decision with the Ad Hoc Division that CAS has set up to deal with disputes in the immediate build-up to Milan Cortina and during the Games themselves on an expedited basis.
The 29-year-old filed his appeal on Wednesday, but it was rejected by the Milan-based panel on Thursday for the simple reason that its jurisdiction is restricted to cases that arise within 10 days of the Games’ start and the closing ceremony on Feb. 22.
While he filed his appeal on the first day of that 10-day window, the Ad Hoc Division has ruled that the dispute started five weeks ago and any appeal should have been made to CAS immediately.
With Bolshunov definitely out and hopes of any late additions to the team now dashed, the AIN team in Milan Cortina will number only 20, barely a tenth of the number of athletes Belarus and Russia would normally send to a Winter Olympics.