Russians won’t represent their country at Winter Olympics even if Ukraine war ends, IOC chief says

Neon Olympic rings hang next to the Duomo gothic cathedral for the upcoming Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

ROME -- Russian athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics will not be able to represent their country even if a peace deal is reached with Ukraine, International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry said in an Italian newspaper interview.

At this stage nothing would change the Committee’s decision allowing Russian athletes to take part in the February games only as individuals representing themselves, Coventry told Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Friday.

The IOC banned Russia and Belarus following the former’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the IOC ruled in September that Russians and Belarusians competing at Milano Cortina would do so as individual athletes, without a national flag or anthem.

In other remarks, Coventry - the IOC’s first woman president - said holding the Olympics in multiple cities, as Italy is doing, would become “the new normality” and the Milano Cortina games would provide useful guidance for the future.

The IOC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for confirmation of Coventry’s comments.

The Milano Cortina games run from February 6 to 22.

Reporting by Enrico Sciacovelli, Editing by Gavin Jones and Kate Mayberry, Reuters