Winter Olympics 2026: Why ‘Russia’ won’t be in Milan Cortina

Alexander Ovechkin completed his happy belly slide last April before the Russian hype machine began revving it up.

The Kremlin seized the opportunity to paint the milestone goal as a national victory for Russia from one of Vladimir Putin’s most loyal and high-profile supporters.

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Putin publicly congratulated Ovechkin on surpassing Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time leading scorer, describing the feat as “not only a personal success, but also a true celebration for fans in Russia and abroad.” Putin’s political allies praised Ovechkin for “never backing down from his passport” “when Russians were threatened for being Russian.” Astronauts on the International Space Station also yelled at Ovechkin from orbit.

As Ovechkin spoke in the mid-ice moments after making history, the Washington Capitals star thanked his family, teammates, coaches, trainers — even the opposing goaltender who failed to save his laser shot from the top of the left faceoff circle. Ovechkin ended his speech by gesturing to the Capital One Arena crowd and saying, “All you fans, the whole world, Russia, we did it, boys, we did it!”

The way Russia presented Ovechkin’s comments was more politically charged than they first heard. Billboards across Moscow featured Ovechkin’s face and the four-word quote, “Russians, we did it!”

Opportunities for a state figure to turn a sporting success into a propaganda tool for Russia at this month’s Winter Olympics in Italy are all too rare. The Russians are a sporting pariah, banned by the IOC and close ally Belarus less than a week after Ukraine invaded four years ago.

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Thirteen athletes from Russia and seven from Belarus will compete in the Milan Cortina Games, but they will do so without a flag, colour, anthem or place on the medal table. They are officially stateless, competing not for their country but as Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN).

Neutral athletes will compete in eight sports: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, luge, ski mountaineering and short and long track speed skating. The IOC has announced that athletes from Russia and Belarus cannot compete in team sports, ruling out the possibility of Russia sending its powerful men’s hockey team to challenge for medals.

Individual athletes from Russia and Belarus who qualified for the Olympics in their respective sports had to clear yet another hurdle to participate in the Milan Cortina Games. An independent three-person panel conducted background checks on each athlete to weed out individuals “contracted with the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies” or “actively supporting the war” in Ukraine.

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Ovechkin is a classic example of a Russian player who was unlikely to pass the testing process even if the IOC had allowed the country’s hockey team to compete. He launched the #PutinTeam social media movement in support of Putin months before Russia’s 2018 presidential election. He has repeatedly refused to issue a clear condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

To this day, despite years of scrutiny from the American media, Ovechkin’s Instagram profile photo shows him posing with Putin in the Kremlin.

According to sports geopolitics expert Lucas Aubin, the boycott or neutral participation of Russian athletes would harm the Kremlin, as it removes one of the regime’s most effective messaging tools.

“Sports have become a powerful symbolic resource for the Kremlin,” said Aubin, author of the 2022 book “The Sportocratura Under Vladimir Putin.” “Olympic medals, world championships, and the hosting of mega-events such as the 2014 Sochi Olympics or the 2018 World Cup helped perpetuate the narrative of a successful, modern, and resilient Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Such moments provided high visibility for the national community and international audiences.

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“When those steps are closed, the regime loses a communication tool. It does not directly threaten the political system, but it undermines one of its most effective symbolic tools.”

Russia last participated in the Winter Olympics as Russia in 2014 when it hosted the Sochi Games. Then whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov revealed and Canadian law professor Dr. An investigation led by Richard McLaren uncovered a large, state-sponsored Russian doping program.

The McLaren report showed that Russia encouraged more than 1,000 summer, winter and Paralympic athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs between 2011 and 2015. At the Winter Games in Sochi, cheating peaked with urine and blood tests turning up positive and athletes not being medicated to their potential.

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Before the IOC lifted its doping ban against Russia, the country attacked Ukraine days after the end of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Despite US efforts for peace, the war and airstrikes continue. As a result, Russia will have a reduced presence in Milan Cortina, as it did during the Summer Olympics in Paris two years ago.

After sidelining Russia at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Kremlin attempted to undermine and discredit the quality of those Games, recasting Russia’s boycott as persecution by a hostile West. The Kremlin also tried to create a post-Paris multi-sport event that would welcome athletes from countries friendly to Russia, but the ambitious project was first delayed and then effectively abandoned.

Now, without its star-studded hockey team and many of Italy’s other top winter sports athletes, Russia’s best hope for a medal may be 18-year-old figure skater Adelia Petrosian. The raven-haired three-time Russian national champion is recognized as the first female skater to perform a quadruple loop in competition, but she has rarely competed outside her home country and remains unproven on the global stage.

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Petrosyan is likely to face more scrutiny during the competition at the 2022 Beijing Olympics as the latest talent of Kamila Valiva’s controversial coach Eteri Tutberidze. Valiva, the 15-year-old European champion and gold medal favorite, fell twice during her free skate and finished a disappointing fourth due to a four-year ban for a doping scandal.

In an unusually harsh rebuke, then-IOC president Thomas Bach admitted that she had been under great mental stress since the revelation of her positive drug test, but was “very distraught” when she saw Tutberidze Valiva leave the ice.

“When I later saw how he was greeted by his closest team, which looked like a great cold, it was cool to see,” Bach said.

For Russia, any path back to the Olympic stage will require a peace treaty with Ukraine, adherence to World Anti-Doping Agency drug testing policy and weak resolve among allied Western governments. Los Angeles has many hurdles to overcome by 2028, but Aubin insists the possibility “cannot be completely ruled out.”

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Until then, Russia has been in purgatory without any global sporting platform to show its might to the world.

“Sports is a double-edged sword for any state that turns it into a political tool,” Aubin said. “When victories come, they bring visibility, prestige, and a sense of national superiority. When sanctions, scandals, or boycotts follow, they expose the state to reputational damage, international scrutiny, and symbolic loss. The same machinery that promotes victory also promotes humiliation.”