Sawt Falasteen - Russian and Belarusian figure skaters get green light for Winter Olympics

Russians Petr Gumennik, 23, and Adeliia Petrosian, 18, and Belarusian Viktoriia Safonova, 22, had already booked their ticket to the Games at International Skating Union (ISU) qualifiers in Beijing last September before undergoing a second IOC review.

The trio are the first athletes in what is expected to be a very small delegation from both countries competing in the Games from February 6 to 22.

Russian and Belarusian skaters have been banned from ISU events since the invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

Thursday's first list "will be updated in line with the decisions of the Individual Neutral Athlete Eligibility Review Panel," the IOC stated.

Fifteen Russians and 17 Belarusians competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics and won five medals.

But winter federations appear significantly more reluctant to allow athletes from both countries to compete in Italy.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) whose disciplines account for more than half of the Olympic podium finishes, as well as the biathlon federation, maintain a strict ban, as did the luge governing body for a long time.

However the Court of Arbitration for Sport opened the way at the end of October for Russian lugers to be reinstated, deeming their exclusion disproportionate, triggering a Russian appeal against the intransigence of the FIS, which must be decided before December 10.

At the Beijing 2022 Olympics, which ended just before the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Olympic Committee delegation, already deprived of an anthem and a flag due to a vast doping scandal, won 32 medals, while the Belarusians won two.

P.Tamimi--SF-PST