By TIM REYNOLDS
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Russian athletes have instructed the Worldwide Luge Federation that they obtained visas and are coming to the U.S. for a World Cup race subsequent weekend, a transfer that Ukrainian athletes consider is just unfair.
And it may not be lengthy earlier than Russians are competing on the bobsled and skeleton circuits once more as effectively, with the federation that runs these sports activities releasing an inventory Friday of 9 cleared athletes — two bobsledders and 7 skeleton sliders.
The Russian luge crew — about six athletes — is planning to compete in Lake Placid, New York, in an effort to spice up fledgling hopes of qualifying for the Milan Cortina Olympics which can be coming in February. Russia isn’t racing at this weekend’s World Cup luge competitors in Park Metropolis, Utah, regardless of some claims from Russian officers in current days that they might be there.
Russia has not seen its athletes compete in a World Cup luge race since that nation invaded Ukraine practically 4 years in the past. The battle rages on, and now Ukrainian athletes are bracing for the chance of crossing paths with Russians in competitors. It’s of no comfort to the Ukrainian sliders that the Russians — in the event that they arrive — will likely be competing as impartial athletes and never below their nation’s flag.
“They are not neutral,” Ukrainian luge athlete Anton Dukach mentioned. “They support war.”
Dukach is Ukraine’s prime Olympic hopeful in luge. He believes that, if he hadn’t made it right into a shelter in time, he would have been killed two years in the past when a Russian rocket hit his condo. A few of his neighbors, he mentioned, died in that assault.
He’s misplaced many pals and classmates within the battle. He races with them in thoughts and can’t perceive why Russians — who haven’t been allowed to compete in lots of sports activities due to the battle — now have sliders and others being given a shot at making it to the Olympics.
The neutrality situation is paramount. Sure sports activities federations are getting ready to let Russian athletes compete, however solely after they’re cleared in what’s described as an impartial overview course of to make sure that they haven’t publicly supported the battle and should not affiliated with Russia’s army or different forces.
“Of course I don’t support this decision,” Dukach mentioned. “The FIL and the (International Olympic Committee) said they are neutral, but I don’t think so. We have proof and we already sent evidence that they are not neutral.”
Russian sliders have been making an attempt for a number of days, via an workplace in Kazakhstan, to get visas that will permit them to enter the U.S. The luge World Cups within the U.S. — this weekend in Park Metropolis, subsequent weekend in Lake Placid — are a part of a five-race Olympic qualifying sequence, which began with a contest on the Olympic venue in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy final month.
The Russians had been allowed to compete there and crossed paths with the Ukrainians. It was not a World Cup occasion and wasn’t open to spectators. No Russian completed higher than nineteenth there, which didn’t precisely get the Olympic quest off to a flying begin.
Third positioned Austria’s Dorothea Schwarz competes throughout the ladies’s single-seater Luge World Cup race in Winterberg, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (David Inderlied/dpa through AP)
Third positioned Austria’s Dorothea Schwarz reacts after the ladies’s single-seater Luge World Cup race in Winterberg, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (David Inderlied/dpa through AP)
FILE -Anton Dukach, of Ukraine, slides throughout the luge males’s single spherical 3 on the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 6, 2022, within the Yanqing district of Beijing. (AP Photograph/Pavel Golovkin, File)
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Third positioned Austria’s Dorothea Schwarz competes throughout the ladies’s single-seater Luge World Cup race in Winterberg, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (David Inderlied/dpa through AP)
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U.S. luge athlete Ashley Farquharson mentioned she discovered herself sitting a room on the monitor, on the brink of race when she seen that the opposite sliders alongside her had been Russians and Ukrainians.
“It was a little awkward,” Farquharson mentioned. “I think they all felt the same way.”
The State Division usually doesn’t touch upon particular person visa conditions and didn’t affirm that the Russian functions had been permitted. It did, nonetheless, provide this assertion: “We are doing everything possible to support major international sporting events hosted by the United States without sacrificing our national security.”
In the meantime, the Worldwide Bobsled and Skeleton Federation mentioned the 9 athletes — together with 9 assist employees similar to coaches and a physician — have been declared impartial and must be allowed to compete in sure ladies’s skeleton, males’s skeleton and ladies’s monobob occasions. They aren’t competing at Lillehammer, Norway, this weekend and will have as much as 4 World Cup alternatives earlier than the Olympics, with race weekends upcoming in Sigulda, Latvia; St. Moritz, Switzerland; Winterberg, Germany; and Altenberg, Germany.
As is the case with the luge athletes, the Russians in bobsled and skeleton can have a really powerful time qualifying for the Olympics.
The IOC has indicated that it desires Russians to have the chance to compete as impartial athletes on the Milan Cortina Video games. Nevertheless, every sport’s personal federation controls the qualifying occasions. In occasions like snowboarding, snowboarding, bobsled, skeleton and luge, governing our bodies initially refused to permit any Russians to participate, then amended these selections after appeals.
If the Russians get right into a World Cup — or the Olympics — they might be competing as “Individual Neutral Athletes” and never below their homeland’s flag. And even when they compete in Lake Placid, the trail to Olympic qualifying should be very murky. The 2 remaining Olympic qualifying races after Lake Placid are in Latvia and Germany, and acquiring visas to enter these nations could also be troublesome for the Russians.
“I’ve always been proud to represent my country,” Dukach mentioned. “It’s even more important now.”
AP Diplomatic Author Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
