GENEVA, January 26. /TASS/. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) has ruled to grant two 2026 Winter Olympics spots to Russian downhill skiers, the press office of the Russian Alpine and Ski Federation said in a statement on Monday.

One of the spots will be allocated to a skier in male’s competitions and the other one in female’s Olympic downhill races, according to the statement.

"They provided us with spots. We are waiting to receive invitations later in the day from the International Olympic Committee," the Russian sports federation said in its statement.

The IOC earlier extended the 2026 Winter Olympic Games invitations to Russian figure skaters Adelia Petrosyan and Pyotr Gumennik, ski mountaineer Nikita Filippov, short track speed skaters Ivan Posashkov and Alyona Krylova, speed skaters Ksenia Korzhova and Anastasia Semyonova as well as skiers Savely Korostelyov and Daria Nepryayeva.

On March 1, 2022, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in federation-sponsored tournaments. The decision followed recommendations from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) against the background of the aggravation of Russian-Ukrainian relations. The ban was subsequently extended multiple times.

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be held in Italy, in the cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The event will take place on February 6-22, 2026. Russian athletes are allowed to participate in the Olympics under a neutral status and only in individual competitions.

The downhill skiing competitions at the 2026 Olympics will take place on February 7-18. As of today only seven Russian skiers have been granted the right to participate in this event as neutrals: Yulia Pleshkova, Alexander Andriyenko, Semyon Yefimov, Ivan Kuznetsov, Yekaterina Tkachenko, Tanzila Israilova and Vitalina Girina.