Två nya ryssar uttagna till OS – under neutral flagg

Individual Neutral Athletes is expected to be the name used to represent approved individual Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned those nations' previous designations due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that continued into the duration of the games. The IOC country code is AIN, from the French athlètes individuels neutres. The delegation was banned from using the Olympic flag and Olympic anthem, which was the usual custom for neutral designated athletes in previous games. They instead used a teal flag depicting a circular AIN emblem and a one-off instrumental anthem, both assigned by the IOC. Individual neutral athletes have to be first background checked and then approved by each sport's international federation, and then by a special panel created by the IOC. Due to the AIN participating as a neutral team under certain conditions, the delegation will not march the parade of nations during the opening ceremony and will not receive an official ranking in the medal tables. While the flag uses the singular wording "Individual Neutral Athlete", the IOC uses the plural wording "Individual Neutral Athletes" in prose.