2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics - Figure Skating Qualification

olympic said:
Sincerely asking - Was there ever a question that they could be denied?
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IIRC when they first announced who were allowed to compete and try get a spot under the neutral status - there was something about that they still had to stay neutral and their neutral status would be checked again before Olympics. With other words, there was no guarantee for the neutral athletes to stay neutral all though they passed the "test" the first time. If anyone would have stepped wrong since last time (April?) they would simply lose their neutral status. And since the Olympic quotas for the AIN was given to the athletes, that would also have ment no one would replace them if they lost the status, all though they had reserves to begin with. Now, the athletes themselves know about this and have probably been very careful not to do anything that could change their neutral status. However - I´m not sure they are still being monitored now or if they guaranteed to compete under the neutral status? I mean if they aren´t doing more background checks, it´s unlikely to find something at this stage.
 
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skateblessing said:
IIRC when they first announced who were allowed to compete and try get a spot under the neutral status - there was something about that they still had to stay neutral and their neutral status would be checked again before Olympics. With other words, there was no guarantee for the neutral athletes to stay neutral all though they passed the "test" the first time. If anyone would have stepped wrong since last time (April?) they would simply lose their neutral status. And since the Olympic quotas for the AIN was given to the athletes, that would also have ment no one would replace them if they lost the status, all though they had reserves to begin with. Now, the athletes themselves know about this and have probably been very careful not to do anything that could change their neutral status. However - I´m not sure they are still being monitored now or if they guaranteed to compete under the neutral status? I mean if they aren´t doing more background checks, it´s unlikely to find something at this stage.
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Âlso wondering about substances. Who`s doing the testing? Someone from ISU going there regularly?
 
WADA does the testing. Olympics is not about politics or other countries should be banned, too. The Russian ban is about doping so test them as much as possible but as long as they are clean, let them take part.
 
Kiki5375 said:
WADA does the testing. Olympics is not about politics or other countries should be banned, too. The Russian ban is about doping so test them as much as possible but as long as they are clean, let them take part.
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It's not just about doping. This has to keep being told every time threads like this start up. The main reason why all of Russia and Belarus are out of competition is because of the invasion of Ukraine during the Olympic Truce period. So yes... politics.

Up until 2022, Russian athletes may have had to compete under some blanket term like "Olympic Athlete from Russia", but they still were able to send much more complete teams across all sports in both the Summer and Winter Games.
 
And this is what I see unfair. What about Israel, North Korea and so many other countries? Why do they only ban Russia then? there is war in so many countries. And these kids spent all their life on the ice. They are not responsible for politics. The skaters are banned but tennis players are allowed to continue their sport. Why? I am not Russian and I don't support the Russian politics but I am sad for the kids that have nothing to do with it. They worked all their life for their skating career and now they lose it all because of politics they cannot change.
 
Kiki5375 said:
And this is what I see unfair. What about Israel, North Korea and so many other countries? Why do they only ban Russia then? there is war in so many countries. And these kids spent all their life on the ice. They are not responsible for politics. The skaters are banned but tennis players are allowed to continue their sport. Why? I am not Russian and I don't support the Russian politics but I am sad for the kids that have nothing to do with it. They worked all their life for their skating career and now they lose it all because of politics they cannot change.
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How about taking the political commentary to PI?
 
Kiki5375 said:
And this is what I see unfair. What about Israel, North Korea and so many other countries? Why do they only ban Russia then? there is war in so many countries. And these kids spent all their life on the ice. They are not responsible for politics. The skaters are banned but tennis players are allowed to continue their sport. Why? I am not Russian and I don't support the Russian politics but I am sad for the kids that have nothing to do with it. They worked all their life for their skating career and now they lose it all because of politics they cannot change.
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Just a short answer because I think it is relevant: figure skating in Russia is state funded (meaning: no fees for coaches/ice etc unlike basically every other country except China) and tennis players from Russia are not state funded (also chess players are not for example)
 
Because those other countries didn’t start wars in the Olympic truce period. According to the IOC, you’re not allowed to use the Olympics’s bump up of increased nationalism and goodwill to generate support for starting a war.
 
Kiki5375 said:
And this is what I see unfair. What about Israel, North Korea and so many other countries? Why do they only ban Russia then? there is war in so many countries. And these kids spent all their life on the ice. They are not responsible for politics. The skaters are banned but tennis players are allowed to continue their sport. Why? I am not Russian and I don't support the Russian politics but I am sad for the kids that have nothing to do with it. They worked all their life for their skating career and now they lose it all because of politics they cannot change.
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sus2850 said:
Just a short answer because I think it is relevant: figure skating in Russia is state funded (meaning: no fees for coaches/ice etc unlike basically every other country except China) and tennis players from Russia are not state funded (also chess players are not for example)
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No, the short answer is none of those countries invaded another country during the Olympic Truce period. This was the THIRD time in fifteen years that Russia had done so - 1) invasion of Georgia in August 2008, 2) invasion of Crimea in February 2014, 3) invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The world and the IOC had basically had it with Russia starting wars during the Olympic Truce period.
 
Kiki5375 said:
And this is what I see unfair. What about Israel, North Korea and so many other countries? Why do they only ban Russia then? there is war in so many countries. And these kids spent all their life on the ice. They are not responsible for politics. The skaters are banned but tennis players are allowed to continue their sport. Why? I am not Russian and I don't support the Russian politics but I am sad for the kids that have nothing to do with it. They worked all their life for their skating career and now they lose it all because of politics they cannot change.
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Because Russia did that during Olympic piece
 
Karen-W said:
No, the short answer is none of those countries invaded another country during the Olympic Truce period. This was the THIRD time in fifteen years that Russia had done so - 1) invasion of Georgia in August 2008, 2) invasion of Crimea in February 2014, 3) invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The world and the IOC had basically had it with Russia starting wars during the Olympic Truce period.
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But the question was (at least the part to which I answered as I thought the reason of breaking the Olympic truce was obvious) why other sports people from Russia are not banned. And the reason is that state funded Russian athletes are banned and individual athletes that have no ties to Russia/funding are not banned (like tennis/chess). Or do you imply only winter sports are banned? That is not true either. For example in my other facourite sport which is sport climbing no Russians were considered for Paris 2024
 
sus2850 said:
But the question was why other sports people from Russia are not banned. And the reason is that state funded Russian athletes are banned and individual athletes that have no ties to Russia/funding are not banned (like tennis/chess). Or do you imply only winter sports are banned? That is not true either. For example in my other facourite sport which is sport climbing no Russians were considered for Paris 2024
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The IOC loosened the ban restrictions in the run-up to the 2024 Olympics and left it up to individual sports federations as to whether or not they would allow Russians & Belarusians to attempt to qualify for AIN status. Some federations have maintained a total ban, others have allowed a very limited number of athletes to compete.

Wikipedia has a good summary of the AINs at both the 2024 Summer Olympics - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Neutral_Athletes_at_the_2024_Summer_Olympics

As well as the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics -
en.wikipedia.org

Individual Neutral Athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
@tony has revealed on The Skating Session's IG account the tech panels for the Olympics. As he notes on the posts, these have not been officially published or announced by the ISU, but as far as he is aware, the information is correct as of today. Tech panels call both the individual events and the team event for the disciplines.

Men - Leena Laskonen FIN, Clarence Ong AUS, Raoul LeBlanc CAN (called the 2025 Skate Canada Men & Women's competitions)
Women - Jeroen Prins NED, Claudia Unger GER, Zsofia Tokaji-Kulcsar HUN (called the 2025 Finlandia Trophy Men & Women's competitions)
Pairs - Susan Lynch AUS, Veronique Fleury FRA, Whitney Gaynor USA (called the 2025 Worlds Pairs competition)
Ice Dance - Marcin Kozubek POL, Ayako Higashino JPN, Tae-hwa Yang KOR (rumored to be the 2025 GPF Ice Dance panel)
 
Prins: judge Beijing 2022 (Pairs)
Lynch: judge Torino 2006 (Women), TC Vancouver 2010 (Pairs) and Pyeongchang 2018 (Women)
Higashino: TS Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022
Yang: TS Pyeongchang 2018

__________________

One of the Referees will be Saioa Sancho of Spain. It was mentioned in congratulating social media posts by Spanish Fed this summer.

Facebook

www.facebook.com www.facebook.com
 
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kwanfan1818 said:
Anything GOES has posted on Bluesky with a link to the Swedish Fed's announcement that Sweden has secured a returned spot for the Olympics:
https://www.skatesweden.se/nyheter/nyheter/2025-12-03-svensk-os-kvotplats-i-isdans---en-historisk-milstolpe

They don't announce who gave back the spot, but I have to think it was Finland.
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Happy for Nikolaj and partner, but is it sure that the Swedish Oly Com will let them go? They have been ridiculously hard before.
And of course hearbroken for Yuka and Juho.:wuzrobbed
 
There’s no guarantee that the Swedish Olympic Committee will let them go, but there’s precedent in the last two Olympics for developmental athletes. Majorov the Elder got one — IIRC, he melted down when he realized that they wouldn’t send him under the regular standards four years later — and Taljegaard. .Reitan/Majorov the younger should qualify this time, assuming she has/gets her passport in time, if the provision still stands.
 
The article says nothing about her citizenship status unfortunately, only that we have a spot. SOC can be the major problem though, really hope they take in mind that Icedance is totally different from single skating and the fact this is the first ever spot in Isdance.
Feeling sad for Yuka & Juho though.
 
Andrea82 said:
Especially compared to the 210 they ask for Men.
Euros 2025
14 men over 210
5 women over 185
Worlds 2025
23 men over 210
11 women over 185
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Yeah, this is ridiculous and unfair to female skaters. Can't they send some complain to their fed or olympic commitee pointing out the double standard and very harsh criteria basically not found elsewhere in the world?
 
Carina said:
The article says nothing about her citizenship status unfortunately, only that we have a spot. SOC can be the major problem though, really hope they take in mind that Icedance is totally different from single skating and the fact this is the first ever spot in Isdance.
Feeling sad for Yuka & Juho though.
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The Swedish club they represent seems pretty sure they are going. They basically posted in Swedish that Milla and Nikolaj and the club are going to present Sweden in Milano. Unless their social manager for the club is really out of sync with the requirements about citizenship etc., they must know something more. And I would assume they doubled checked with Milla and Nikolaj before they posted this.
 
Carina said:
The article says nothing about her citizenship status unfortunately, only that we have a spot. SOC can be the major problem though, really hope they take in mind that Icedance is totally different from single skating and the fact this is the first ever spot in Isdance.
Feeling sad for Yuka & Juho though.
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Well the good thing is if SOC screws them over now, they have time to switch feds before 2030 unless they rather go for reaching the extremely difficult requirements next time.
 
skateblessing said:
The Swedish club they represent seems pretty sure they are going. They basically posted in Swedish that Milla and Nikolaj and the club are going to present Sweden in Milano. Unless their social manager for the club is really out of sync with the requirements about citizenship etc., they must know something more. And I would assume they doubled checked with Milla and Nikolaj before they posted this.
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Really, really hope so
 
This is the news I have been waiting for ... for quite some time.

Tbh I have not got over the atrocity in Skate to Milano qualifiers. So, I really really hope that the Swedish Olympic Committee will let them go and that Milla's citizenship is resolved

As for the Finns, I also simply LOVE them ... wonder if they would consider continuing for 4 more years. They just bring so much to ice dance. Well, Olympics or not, Yuka and Juho have left their mark in the sport and I hope they will keep going!!!
 
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