GENEVA (AP) — Russian skiers and snowboarders won a court ruling on Tuesday to apply as neutral athletes for qualification events to the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics after nearly four years of being excluded during the war on Ukraine.

Russian sports minister Mikhail Degtyaryov posted on social media that an appeal from Russia to the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a blanket ban imposed by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) within days of the full military invasion in February 2022. FIS renewed the ban in October.

CAS later published its ruling in another legal win for Russian and Belarusian winter sports athletes. In October, a similar appeal to CAS by the Russian luge federation and athletes ruled against a long-standing blanket ban based on their passports.

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