BERLIN :The International Olympic Committee on Thursday cleared one Belarusian and two Russian figure skaters to compete at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Games as neutrals, the first athletes of their countries to be invited to take part amid sanctions.

Russians Petr Gumennik and Adeliia Petrosian as well as Viktoriia Safonova of Belarus are eligible to compete at next February's Olympics in Italy following an evaluation by the IOC's eligibility panel, it said in a statement.

The IOC ruled in September that Russians and Belarusians cleared to compete at the Games would compete as neutral independent athletes, just as they did in the Paris 2024 summer Games, without a national flag or anthem, maintaining their sanctions.

The Olympic body suspended the Russian Olympic Committee in Octobe

See Full Page