International Ski Federation President Johan Eliasch has called for penalized athletes to be allowed to compete under a neutral flag
The International Ski Federation (FIS) should allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete as neutral participants in its events, Johan Eliasch, the head of the sport’s global governing body, has suggested.
The FIS, along with numerous other international sports associations, imposed blanket bans on Russian and Belarusian competitors following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Some of these, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC), have since relaxed their restrictions, and Eliasch believes the FIS should do this too.
“The athletes are not responsible for where they were born,” he said in an interview with Swedish Radio on Monday. “And they shouldn’t get into trouble here.”
Eliasch said he had positive interactions with athletes from Russia and Belarus during last year’s Summer Olympic Games in Paris. The two nations were banned but individual participants could compete as neutrals without their national flags or anthems. Eliasch said the FIS could take the same approach, provided that athletes have no links to the armed forces.
Moscow has accused Western governments of influencing the decisions by sports federations to ostracize Russia and Belarus. Russian officials view the bans as politically motivated applications of double standards.
The FIS governing council renewed its ban in October 2023 “until further notice,” which has affected the 2024 competition season.
Eliasch, a Swedish-British businessman, is one of seven candidates seeking to replace outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach. The vote is scheduled for late March, during a gathering of IOC members in Costa Navarino, Greece.
