The ISU Council met online on May 12, 2025. The following were among the decisions taken by the Council during the meeting.
1. New Chair Athletes Commission The Council formally acknowledged the resignation of Eric Radford from his role as Chair of the Athletes Commission and, consequently, from his position as Council Member. The Council expresses its sincere gratitude to Eric for his valuable contributions and dedicated service during his mandate.
Following an internal vote held within the Athletes Commission, Douwe de Vries was elected as the new Chair and consequently assumes the position of Council Member.
2. Constitutional framework The Council, in order to be prepared for executing the decision of the 59th ISU Congress 2024 in Las Vegas on item 20, proposal 1 (minutes pages 72 f) approved the text of the proposal to be put before the ISU Extraordinary Congress on 3 July 2025.
3. Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) The ISU Council has formally approved the final list of AIN athletes and support personnel deemed eligible to participate in ISU Events. ISU has informed the respective Members of the eligible support personnel. The list of eligible AIN athletes is set out below:
Speed Branch Alexandra Sayutina (RUS), Anastasia Grigoreva (RUS), Anastasiia Zheganova (RUS), Irina Salnikova (RUS), Ivan Posashkov (RUS), Ivan Fruktov (RUS), Daniil Nikolaeev (RUS), Ksenia Korzhova (RUS), Alisa Bekker (RUS), Anastasia Sememova (RUS), Petr Kotmakov (RUS), Illarion Saboldashev (RUS), Alena Krylova (RUS), Anna Ovchinnikova (RUS), Elena Seregina (RUS), Anna Urazova (RUS), Anna Matveeva (RUS), Yana Dambrouskaya (BLR), Mikita Mihdaliou (BLR), Yahor Damaratski (BLR), Yauheni Bolhau (BLR) and Marina Zueva (BLR).
Daniil Naidenyshev is eligible to skate in the 10,000m (RUS), but not eligible for the 5,000m.
Victor Rudenko (BLR) was deemed eligible to skate in the 1,500m, but not eligible for the 1,000m.
Similarly, Katsiaryna Hahiyeva (BLR) was deemed eligible to compete in the 1,000m and 1,500m, but not eligible for the 500m 2 The decision follows a thorough case-by-case review conducted by the AIN Review Commission in accordance with the established eligibility criteria.
All assessments were based on objective criteria, including evidence of compliance with ISU neutrality standards and absence of any public support for the ongoing conflict.
The current decision of the ISU Council on the AIN eligibility list is final with regard to all applicants and not subject to appeal. This reflects the exceptional and sensitive nature of the current process and aims to ensure procedural integrity and consistency across all applicants respecting their right to privacy.
The athletes named in this ISU Communication are required to continue to comply with the eligibility criteria published in ISU Communication 2680. The list of eligible athletes published in this Communication is therefore subject to change.
4. Next Council meeting The Council will meet again as follows:
- on June 09th, 2PM online meeting (if required) - on July 02nd, 3PM CEST, in Lausanne, Switzerland - on July 04th and 05th in Lausanne, Switzerland May 13, 2025
Tatiana Tarasova's comment about the ISU's decision concerning the Russian athletes :
They only allowed it in single skating. More should have gone. And now we should thank the ISU for this? The bastards hate our country.
They didn't allow us in pair skating. For 33 years in a row, we were the first in pair skating and determined all the directions of the development of pair skating in the world.
It's very sad, I didn't even think that I would be so upset after this decision. It's an unfair and dishonest decision. There is some kind of doom. What they did to us is terrible.
The ISU's comment about the participation of the Russian and Belarusian athletes:
4 Russian athletes were approved the AIN status :
Women : Adeliya Petrosian and Alina Gorbacheva (substitute)
Men: Petr Gumenik and Vladislav Dikidzhi (substitute)
🚫 Russian athletes will not be allowed to participate in ice dance and pairs. (Which means that Russian athletes will not be participating in the team events, obviously)
Here are the athletes Russia selected for the AIN status, in pairs and ice dance :
Pairs: Anastasia Mishina - Alexandr Galliamov and Aleksandra Boikova - Dmitri Kozlovski (substitute)
Ice dance : Aleksandra Stepanova - Ivan Bukin and Vasilisa Kaganovsakaia - Maxim Nekrasov (substitute)
In conclusion, we will have 2 Russian athletes competing in the figure skating category during the 2026 Winter Olympics. Now we are just waiting to see who exactly.
I personally think they would choose Adeliya. I'm a big fan of Petr. However, I'd like to see Vlada in the Olympics, we've seen him landing a few times quad axels, seeing him fighting against Ilia for the Olympic gold would be though but very interesting.
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