Lausanne (AFP) - The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Tuesday opened the way for Russian and Belarusian skiers to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics by overturning a ban imposed by the international skiing body.

CAS, the world’s top sports court, said in a statement that “Russian and Belarusian athletes who meet the International Olympic Committee AIN (Individual Neutral Athletes) eligibility criteria should be allowed to participate” in qualification events organised by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS).

Russia welcomed the ruling and pointed to other decisions that could allow Russian bobsleigh and luge athletes to take part in the Winter Games in Milan-Cortina next year.

Sports minister Mikhail Degtyarev noted “it is important that this is the third court decision in favour of Russia in winter Olympic sports”.

FIS had announced in October that it was banning athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing in its qualification events for the Olympics.

Competitors in skiing and snowboarding from the two countries have been banned from FIS events since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but they had hoped to participate under a neutral banner in the Milan-Cortina Games, which run from February 6 to 22.

The International Olympic Committee had announced in September that athletes from Russia and Belarus would be allowed to compete at the Olympics under a neutral banner if they meet strict conditions.

Those include competing under a neutral flag, taking part only in individual events and undergoing checks to prove that they did not actively support the war in Ukraine or have any links with the army.

The same conditions applied to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics at which 15 Russians and 17 Belarusians competed, winning a combined five medals.

The IOC has also barred them from taking part in the opening ceremony or having their achievements recognised in the official medals table.

The news is a boost for Russia’s cross-country skiers.

During the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, Russia won almost a third of all cross-country skiing medals – including four out of 12 gold medals.

FIS’s move to ban Russians and Belarusians followed in the footsteps of similar attempts by the governing bodies of biathlon and luge, although authorities from the sport of ice skating decided to give athletes from the two nations the chance to qualify.

But in the ruling on Tuesday, CAS upheld two appeals – one each by the the Russian and Belarusian skiing federations – on the grounds that the FIS statutes “protect individuals from discrimination and require the FIS to be politically neutral”.

- ‘Historic’ judo move -

The ruling also frees up Russian and Belarusian athletes to try to qualify for the Paralympics.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in September lifted its partial suspension on Russian and Belarusian athletes, meaning that they would be able to compete at the Milan-Cortina Paralympic Games from March 6 to 15 under their own flags.

However, the IPC said that no athletes from either country were likely to qualify.

Sporting powerhouse Russia has been deprived of its colours in the Olympic arena since 2016, initially due to the state-orchestrated doping scandal and later over the invasion of Ukraine.

Its ally Belarus was sanctioned in 2022 for providing its territory to facilitate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has been effectively shut out from international sporting competitions, including football, since it invaded Ukraine but some sports governing bodies have recently relaxed their constraints.

Last week, Russia’s judo federation hailed “a historic decision” by the sport’s global governing body the IJF to allow their judoka to compete under their national flag, a move which Ukraine’s judo federation described as being contrary to “peace, justice, and responsibility”.