Understanding AIN: The Neutral Athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics
The Absence of Russia’s Flag and the Birth of AIN
As the world turns its attention to the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina, spectators will notice something unusual on the ice and snow: a group of at least a dozen athletes competing not under their national colors, but under a distinctive teal flag marked with the acronym “AIN.” This isn’t a country you’ll find on any map or in any geography textbook. Instead, these three letters represent “Athlètes Individuels Neutres” – a French term meaning “Individual Neutral Athletes.” The use of French reflects its status as one of the two official languages of the Olympic Games, alongside English. These neutral athletes are primarily connected to Russia and Belarus, two nations whose flags and anthems have been conspicuously absent from recent Olympic competitions due to a combination of systematic doping violations and geopolitical conflicts, most notably Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Belarus’s support of that military action.
The creation of the AIN designation represents a compromise solution that allows talented athletes to pursue their Olympic dreams while maintaining the International Olympic Committee’s stance against the actions of their home nations. Athletes holding Russian or Belarusian passports who have successfully qualified for the Milano Cortina 2026 Games will march and compete under this neutral banner, accompanied by an instrumental anthem devoid of any lyrics that might evoke national pride or identity. The AIN classification first emerged before the 2024 Paris Olympics as a replacement for the previous designation of ROC (Russian Olympic Committee), marking yet another chapter in Russia’s troubled relationship with international sporting bodies and the Olympic movement.
From National Pride to Neutral Status: The ROC Suspension
The journey from competing under national colors to the neutral AIN designation has been a gradual process marked by controversy and political tension. The International Olympic Committee made the decisive move to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee in October 2023, months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, the specific reason cited by the IOC for this suspension wasn’t directly related to the war itself, but rather to Russia’s decision to incorporate regional sports organizations from occupied Ukrainian territories under the authority of what Russia claimed was its own National Olympic Committee. This action represented a direct challenge to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and violated the Olympic Charter’s provisions regarding the recognition of national Olympic committees within their internationally recognized borders.
The IOC’s statement made their position crystal clear: the ROC’s incorporation of Ukrainian regional sports bodies constituted “a breach of the Olympic Charter because it violates the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine, as recognised by the IOC in accordance with the Olympic Charter.” This suspension meant that Russian athletes could no longer compete even under the ROC banner that had been introduced following earlier doping scandals. The move reflected the IOC’s attempt to balance political realities with its stated commitment to keeping the Olympics above politics while respecting international law and the sovereignty of member nations. For athletes who had already been competing under restrictions, this represented yet another layer of separation from their national identity in the Olympic arena.
The Doping Scandal That Changed Everything
Russia’s troubled Olympic journey actually began years before the Ukrainian conflict, rooted in what international authorities determined was a state-sponsored doping program. In 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency voted to exclude Russia from the next Olympic cycle following revelations about systematic doping violations that shocked the sporting world. WADA’s sanctions went beyond just the athletes – they barred Russian government officials from attending any major sporting events and stripped Russia of the right to host or even bid for international tournaments for four years. However, recognizing that many Russian athletes were likely innocent victims of a system beyond their control, WADA created a pathway for clean athletes to compete under the ROC designation, provided they could demonstrate they weren’t part of the state-sponsored doping program.
The ROC designation was meant to be a temporary measure, and Russian athletes competed under this neutral banner at the COVID-delayed Tokyo 2020 Summer Games. The Court of Arbitration for Sport later reviewed WADA’s sanctions and reduced the ban from four years to two years, which meant the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics would be the final competition under the ROC designation – or so everyone thought at the time. Little did the sporting world know that Beijing 2022 would produce yet another doping controversy that would further tarnish Russia’s Olympic reputation and cement the need for even stricter neutral athlete protocols in future games.
The Heartbreaking Valieva Scandal
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics delivered one of the most emotionally charged and controversial moments in recent Olympic history when fifteen-year-old Russian figure skating sensation Kamila Valieva became the center of a doping scandal that captivated global attention. Valieva had already helped the ROC team secure gold in the figure skating team event, defeating the United States and Japan, when news broke that she had tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned heart medication, in a sample taken before the Winter Games began. The timing of the positive test result’s disclosure – only after the team victory – delayed medal ceremonies and raised serious questions about the testing and reporting protocols, while also reigniting concerns about Russia’s persistent doping culture.
The scandal was particularly heartbreaking because of Valieva’s age and the immense pressure placed on her young shoulders. An Olympic official attempted to explain the positive test by claiming there had been a mix-up with Valieva’s grandfather’s heart medication – an explanation that satisfied few critics. Despite being temporarily suspended, Valieva was controversially cleared to participate in the individual women’s skating event, where she had been considered a strong favorite for gold. The pressure proved overwhelming for the teenager, who delivered an uncharacteristically error-filled performance and finished fourth, breaking down in tears immediately after her program. Her ROC teammates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova went on to claim gold and silver respectively, but the joy of their achievements was overshadowed by the controversy. The International Skating Union later stripped the ROC of its team gold medal, and the repercussions continue to affect Russian skaters at Milano Cortina 2026, where only two quota places (one male, one female) are available for AIN-designated figure skaters with Russian passports, and they remain ineligible for team events.
A History of Olympic Exclusion
While Russia’s current situation is perhaps the most prominent example of Olympic exclusion in recent years, the International Olympic Committee has a long history of suspending national committees for various violations. These suspensions reflect the IOC’s ongoing struggle to maintain the integrity of the Olympic movement while navigating complex political, ethical, and administrative challenges. North Korea faced suspension from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics after the country decided to skip the Tokyo Summer Olympics entirely, citing the need to protect its athletes from COVID-19 – a decision the IOC viewed as abandoning its Olympic commitment. The suspension prevented North Korean athletes from competing in Beijing, though it was a largely symbolic punishment given the country’s voluntary absence.
Kuwait provides another interesting case study in Olympic suspension. In 2015, the IOC suspended the Kuwait Olympic Committee to protect the Olympic Movement from what it characterized as “undue government interference” in sporting affairs. Kuwaiti athletes weren’t completely barred from competition, however – they were permitted to participate in the 2016 Rio Olympics as “Independent Olympic Athletes,” much like the current AIN designation. The suspension was eventually lifted in 2019 after Kuwait addressed the IOC’s concerns. Other nations including Brazil, India, and Iraq have experienced temporary suspensions over the years, typically related to political interference in their national Olympic committees or failure to comply with the Olympic Charter’s requirements. These cases demonstrate that while the Olympics strives to be an apolitical celebration of human athletic achievement, the reality is far more complex, with the IOC regularly forced to make difficult decisions that balance sporting ideals against real-world political and ethical considerations that impact athletes, many of whom are innocent bystanders caught in circumstances beyond their control.
