The Russian Biathlon Federation has filed a complaint with the International Sports Court CAS against the exclusion of its athletes from qualifying competitions for the Winter Olympics. According to the state news agency Tass, the lawsuit was filed on Wednesday. The world association IBU announced that it had been informed by Cas about the move from Moscow. Accordingly, Russia’s Biathlon Association, the Russian Paralympic Committee and eight athletes are suing. There was initially no communication about the process from the Cas itself in Lausanne. While Russian officials are optimistic, experts assess the chances of success as very low. Russian and Belarusian biathletes have been banned from international competitions since 2022. The background is the war of aggression against Ukraine ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
The World Biathlon Federation confirmed the suspension in August 2025. The IBU has now also announced that it stands by its decision, “which is based on a solid legal basis”. After some skiers and snowboarders from Russia and Belarus filed a lawsuit before the CAS to gain admission to the Olympic qualification, provided they compete under a neutral flag, the biathlon association is still hoping. “There are always chances of success,” even if it is difficult to predict the verdict, said the head of the Russian Biathlon Federation, Viktor Majgurov, according to Russian media. The former Olympic speed skating champion Svetlana Shurova, who now sits in the Russian parliament, even spoke of “good chances” of taking part.
However, experts consider it very unlikely that the court will grant them the status of neutral athletes – for several reasons: Above all, there are no regulations for the participation of neutral athletes in biathlon. The IBU emphasized this again after filing the CAS lawsuit. Athletes who apply for neutral status must, among other things, not publicly support the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and not have any connections to the military or state security authorities. However, most of the Russian biathletes formally belong to the Russian armed forces. The three-time bronze medalist at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Eduard Latypow, for example, has the rank of lieutenant.
In addition, the Olympic quota places have already been taken. Points for wildcards for national associations without quota places (maximum 2 per gender and NOK) can still be collected at World Cup races until mid-January. The Russians cannot do that because of their exclusion. The Russian double Olympic champion from Turin in biathlon, Svetlana Izhmuratova, also described the chances of success as low. But complaining is still better than waiting and doing nothing.
