Fis changes the rules for Russian and Belarusian athletes

Hear him explain in the clip above what is required for Russian athletes to be allowed to compete next season.

Since last winter, Russia and Belarus have been allowed to compete in Fis sports under a neutral flag, if they applied for it and were approved by a panel that reviewed whether the applicants met the requirements for neutrality.

Earlier this week, the International Ski Federation, Fis, announced that they had made a new decision for the upcoming season.

"The political situation is unacceptable"

Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to compete in the World Cup provided they sign a "declaration of neutrality" where they assure that they are neutral.

There have been some question marks about how this will work, but now Fi's chairman Alexander Ospelt explains to SVT Sport what is required for Russian and Belarusian skiers to get the go-ahead to compete and why the rules were changed.

- The political situation is still not acceptable to us. But the IOC has come up with new recommendations and we have received several requests from athletes, says Ospelt, who also explains that they lost cases in Cas because of their previous rules.

Will be checked

Ospelt, who assures that Fis will check that the skaters are really neutral and follow the rules, also explains that Fis had five different proposals on the table, and that some board members argued for letting Russia and Belarus in altogether - but that it was not close to being the case.

Do you expect that there will be more Russian and Belarusian skaters in the World Cup next season?

- Yes. I think this system allows us to look more individually at the athletes. After all, there have been athletes - for whom I really feel sorry - who have had nothing to do with this regime, who were still not allowed to start.