Russia to sue IBSF in CAS over skeleton, bobsleigh athletes’ int’l ban — sports minister
By Tass
Copyright tass
MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. Lawyers of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) are drafting a lawsuit to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) following a decision made by the Congress of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) to bar Russian athletes, Russian Sports Minister and President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Mikhail Degtyarev said on Friday.
Earlier in the day, the IBSF officially barred Russian athletes from taking part in qualifying events for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. On Friday, the Italian city of Milano hosted the 2025 IBSF Congress meeting ahead of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
“Our Russian Olympic Committee lawyers are already documenting a claim to be lodged with the CAS. We will defend our rights in court, just as we do in support of our luge riders,” Degtyarev said in a statement released by the Russian Sports Ministry.
The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be held in Italy, in the cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. The event will take place on February 6-22, 2026.
Athletes qualify for the Olympic Games in line with the IBSF rankings list, which is updated based on the results of federation-sponsored competitions. Countries are granted Olympic quotas by the relevant National Olympic Committees (NOC). The qualification period for the 2026 Olympics will end on January 18, and the IBSF will then redistribute its vacant quotas on January 22-25.
Russia’s previously imposed IBSF ban
On March 29, at an IBSF Congress extraordinary meeting, delegates agreed to postpone making any decision on Russian athletes’ admission to IBSF competitions in the capacity of neutral athletes until the next meeting of the organization’s Congress on September 11-12 in Italy.
In mid-July 2022, the IBSF announced its decision to suspend Russian athletes from all international tournaments until further notice.
In late March, 2023, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended international sports federations to allow individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in international sports tournaments, but only under specific conditions.
Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be “actively supporting” Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.
