Degtyarev expressed confidence in the participation of the Russian national team at the OI-2028 in full

Mikhail Degtyarev, Minister of Sports and Head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), expressed confidence in the Izvestia studio at the Eastern Economic Forum 2025 (WEF 2025) on September 4 that the Russian national team would participate in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles in full.

According to him, at the Games to be held in Italy in 2026, the Russian national team will be able to get only single licenses, but mass participation of Russian athletes is not expected.

"Ski climbers are already being selected [for the OI-2026], and figure skaters and speed skaters will be in the near future. Other sports are still difficult: skiing, biathlon, hockey, well-known cases, difficult in terms of the Scandinavian lobby. We are continuing our work, but our guys have mostly lost the chance to qualify. <...> But Los Angeles is the 28th year, the summer Games, we are preparing there in full force and we are doing everything for this," Degtyarev said.

The minister added that for Russians to speak at the Olympic Games under the flag, legal recognition of the ROC is necessary, the dossier is currently under consideration by the legal commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"This is the decision of the president of the organization Kirsty Coventry, I thanked her for it. Because we have come a herculean legal way to remove all contradictions... Kirsty Coventry, former Zimbabwe Minister of Sports, Olympic champion, excellent manager. So she immediately took the dossier and handed it to the lawyer. Please, your verdict, if positive, and it can't be anything but positive, I myself as a lawyer can say, and this is confirmed by our Swiss lawyers, <...> the executive committee must restore our rights," Degtyarev said.

The former head of the IOC, Thomas Bach, according to the minister, misled the whole world by taking an anti-Russian Russophobic position.

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Degtyarev said on July 15 that Russia's relations with international sports federations were warming to varying degrees, and negotiations were continuing with them. According to him, the first priority is the return of Russian athletes to the global sports arena.

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