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≡ FIL CONGRESS ≡
“At its 73rd Congress in Tampere, Finland, the International Luge Federation (FIL) has voted to continue the exclusion of Russian athletes from FIL competitions, including the qualification process for the Olympic Winter Games Milano-Cortina 2026. The decision was made through a democratic vote held on June 18, 2025.”
The vote was on whether to extend the existing ban on Russian participation, first passed in 2022 and extended in 2024. Two votes were taken:
● “The first vote asked whether to uphold the 2022 and 2024 resolutions. 24 delegates voted in favor of continuing the exclusion, while seven voted against and one ballot was invalid.”
● “A second vote followed, in which the Congress decided not to authorize the FIL Executive Board to develop an AIN program for neutral Russian athletes. As a result, Russian athletes and their entourage will not be permitted to participate in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Again, 24 delegates voted for the exclusion, while eight supported the possibility of participation under the AIN (Athletes with Individual Neutrality) concept.”
Commented FIL President Einars Fogelis (LAT):
“The Congress has made its position clear. This outcome reflects our collective responsibility to uphold fair and safe competition. We fully respect the diversity of views within our community, especially from our athletes.”
Winter federations have generally been in favor of keeping Russian and Belarusian athletes out of their competitions. The International Ski Mountaineering Federation is allowing a limited number of Russian neutrals to be eligible for Olympic qualifying races and the International Skating Union is allowing one entry per event in figure skating, speed skating and short track for Olympic qualifying events, but not for standard ISU events.
The federations for biathlon, skiing and now luge have kept Russian and Belarusian athletes away from their competitions. Following the International Olympic Committee’s request not to have Russian or Belarusian teams competing, the federations for curling and ice hockey have not allowed these teams to compete.
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Russian reaction, was predictably disappointment and anger:
● Russian Luge Federation chief Natalia Gart told the Russian news agency TASS:
“I understood that there would be a vote, and I understood the possible outcome, how it would go.
“It all depends on the desire; you look for opportunities or reasons. Why were the Russian lugers treated so harshly? This is not the first time we have been treated like this, our lugers are already well-seasoned in this matter, but we are not going to give in.”
● Dmitry Svishchev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sport, told TASS:
“Unfortunately, this is expected. Although there is only one team discipline, why not allow individual athletes? I don’t understand this, it is difficult to explain. When the International Olympic Committee itself recommends allowing Russians, the federation does the opposite. This is harmful to sport.”
● Russia’s 2015 World men’s Singles Champion Semen Pavlichenko told TASS:
“Before talking to you, a journalist called me, and I told him that the decision to deny access was not unexpected for me, I had not followed it and did not know about today’s congress, and I have other things to do without it.
“But after that conversation ended, a couple of minutes later, something heated up inside me, and I thought: ‘Do we deserve this?’ I understand that they are trying to punish us for no reason. Somewhere they cannot fight Russia, which they hate, and therefore they want to hurt it at least in this way, through sports.
“At first, doping was invented as a pretext for our oppression, as if we were all so bad in this regard. Now, another way has been chosen to rein in these Russians. And now Russian athletes are in this situation because of bad people who fight in this way. Many of them tell us to our faces that we are friends, but behind our backs they do things that are not typical for friends.
“We have always had very good relations with the leadership of the international federation, FIL President Einars Fogelis is Latvian, we communicated very well with him in Russian. We had plans to hold international competitions in my native Bratsk. And now they are stabbing us in the back, to put it bluntly.”
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