Bolshunov Set to Stay Banned: The FIS Vote, the CAS Threat and Falun With 110 Days to Go

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What did the FIS decide about Bolshunov?

Russia's most famous cross-country skier is expected to stay banned from international competition this winter, after the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, the FIS, met on Tuesday to discuss his case. But the decision is not as clean as the headline suggests, and the uncertainty around it is the story.

According to reporting by Norwegian broadcaster NRK, the issue of Aleksandr Bolshunov's eligibility was discussed at a meeting of the FIS leadership on Tuesday 3 November. Meeting participants voted to deny the Russian athlete neutral status, according to NRK's sources. However, the federation's administration has yet to formalise an official decision regarding his individual application, and the FIS itself has said the Council did not examine any specific cases.

That distinction matters, and this post will not blur it. The FIS told Nordic Magazine: "The Council did not examine any specific cases. It agreed on certain clarifications that will serve as the basis for applications for neutral status." It is now up to the FIS administration to rule on Bolshunov's case. Several internal sources quoted by NRK say the discussions confirmed a negative stance towards the three-time Olympic champion, but no formal individual decision has yet been taken.

So the honest position is this. Bolshunov is not expected to be granted neutral athlete status. The FIS Council's stance is reported to be negative. But he has not yet received a formal refusal, and the Russian federation's president, Dmitry Svishchev, insists he has not been officially informed. "We have not received any information from the FIS regarding Alexander. We are in constant contact with them," Svishchev said, adding that discussions were continuing and that more than 160 athletes had already been granted authorisation.

Bolshunov, 29, has been banned from international competitions since 2022, like other Russian cross-country skiers. He hopes to benefit from the reopening of the circuit to neutral athletes, under which Russian and Belarusian athletes may return as neutral individual athletes provided they sign a declaration of neutrality. At least one Russian skier, Savelii Korostelev, has already been added to the FIS list of neutral individual athletes for the 2026-27 season. Bolshunov has not.

Why is Bolshunov different from other Russian skiers?

Bolshunov is not just another Russian skier waiting for clearance. He is a three-time Olympic champion, the most famous cross-country skier in Russia, and his profile is the reason his case is treated differently.

Beyond sport, his political profile likely excludes him from Olympic neutrality. He is a National Guard captain and has appeared at pro-war events, including the 2022 Luzhniki rally with President Vladimir Putin. Federation president Elena Valbe has recently said few Russians will satisfy the IOC neutrality criteria, and the most plausible candidates are young athletes such as Savely Korostelev, Sergei Volkov and Darja Nepryayeva. Bolshunov is not on that list.

There is also trouble inside the Russian team. During the international ban, Bolshunov's form waned amid health and family issues, and frustrations have boiled over. At a late-November Russian Cup sprint, he shoved rival Aleksandr Bakurov after a semi-final, knocking him down and injuring his leg. He also alleged that athletes from coach Egor Sorin's group have repeatedly blocked or interfered with him in mass-start and contact races since Russia was barred internationally. After deliberation, the Russian Ski Federation suspended Bolshunov until Bakurov could return to racing, a ban that ultimately lasted two events.

An anonymous source, quoted by RIA Novosti and relayed by Sports.ru, even claims Bolshunov was advised to wait until next season, despite leaving CSKA, the Russian Army's sports club. Leaving the army club was supposed to help his neutrality case. It has not, so far, been enough.

The Russian ski team included him in their preliminary squad for the World Cup opener in Ruka, Finland, scheduled for later in November. With three weeks to go until the World Cup gets underway in Ruka, his international future remains in the balance, pending a decision that could subsequently be challenged.

Could the Court of Arbitration for Sport force FIS to let him race?

This is the part of the story that worries the FIS most, and it is why a case that looks settled is not settled at all. FIS sources told NRK that the federation expects the Bolshunov dispute to land at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the CAS, and officials inside the federation fear CAS will apply the same logic used in a recent decision allowing Russia back into national team hockey.

A ruling from the court could force FIS to let Bolshunov compete at the World Championships in Falun this winter. That is the fear driving the FIS position, and it is a real one, because recent decisions by the sports tribunal are fuelling concerns about the robustness of the current criteria.

There is already a precedent involving Bolshunov himself, and it cuts both ways. The CAS Ad Hoc Division declined to hear his appeal over exclusion from the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, saying it did not have jurisdiction because the dispute had to have arisen by 27 January 2026 at the latest, and his application was filed outside that window. The FIS had declined his application for individual neutral athlete status on 24 December 2025. So Bolshunov has already tried CAS once, and the court said it could not hear the case, not that he was wrong.

A fresh appeal over the 2026-27 season would be a different case, with different timing, and FIS sources are worried precisely because they do not know how it would go. The federation has granted neutral status to more than 160 athletes, which shows the system is working for most applicants. Bolshunov is the test of whether it works for the most famous, and most politically exposed, Russian skier of all.

The new FIS president, Alexander Ospelt, has also spoken openly about the neutral athlete system since taking office, which is a change of tone from his predecessor. The system is no longer a quiet administrative process. It is a public argument about who gets to race, and Bolshunov is at the centre of it.

What does this mean for Falun 2027?

The Bolshunov case lands directly on top of the Falun 2027 row, and the two stories cannot be separated. The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships are 110 days away, in Falun, Sweden, from 24 February to 7 March 2027, and they do not have a settled host in the practical sense, because Sweden is trying to keep Russian and Belarusian athletes out while the FIS has authorised them to return as neutrals.

Falun will host the Nordic World Championships for the sixth time, 12 years after its fifth edition, with 26 medal events including the first women's Nordic Combined team event at a World Championship. The FIS has completed its final inspection of the venues, including the ski jumping, Nordic combined and cross-country courses and the Medal Plaza in Falun's main square. On paper, Falun is ready.

The problem is who is allowed to compete. Sweden, through its ski federation, is trying to persuade the government to refuse visas to Russian athletes, according to SVT Sport reporting carried by Nordic Magazine. Val di Fiemme, the only place reported as a possible backup host, has said in the clearest possible terms that it will not take over. Its organising committee called the reports a result of a misinterpretation or mistranslation, and its chairman Pietro De Godenz said: "We categorically rule out any involvement on our part in the organisation of the 2027 event."

If CAS forces FIS to let Bolshunov race, and Sweden refuses him a visa, the clash between the federation and the host nation becomes a crisis, not a disagreement. If Bolshunov is formally denied neutral status and does not appeal, the Falun row loses its most famous name, but the underlying disagreement about Russian participation remains. Either way, the next 110 days will decide whether the championships are resolved in Falun, or somewhere else, or not at all.

Swedish skier Maja Dahlqvist called the potential shift away from Falun "snopet, and very sad", reflecting broader frustration among athletes. They want to race in Falun, in front of tens of thousands of passionate fans, as they did in 2015. They do not want their world championships turned into a political argument about venues, and they do not want to find out where they are racing a few months before the event.

What is happening on snow this week?

The Bolshunov row is a story about February, but skiing is happening now, and Friday is an opening day. Kitzbuhel opens on Friday 6 November, but only in part, with limited skiing on selected snowmaking slopes on the Resterkogel sector. Austria Tourism lists 21 November as the first official weekend, so check the lift status before travelling, and do not expect the full 233 kilometres of slopes on Friday.

The World Cup returns in Levi, Finland, on 14 and 15 November, after a three-week break since Solden, and Levi is eight days away. The women's slalom runs on Saturday 14 November and the men's slalom on Sunday 15 November, on the Levi Black slope, with Run 1 at 11:00 Levi local time and Run 2 at 14:00 local time. Mikaela Shiffrin will skip both Levi slaloms as part of her exploration season, focusing on giant slalom and super-G, with her first slalom of the season scheduled for Killington on 29 November, where she will chase her 111th World Cup win.

That makes Levi the most open slalom race of the season so far, with Lara Colturi, Emma Aicher and Camille Rast as the leading contenders for the women's reindeer trophy, and Lucas Pinheiro Braathen defending his Levi slalom win for the men. Braathen won the Solden giant slalom to open the season, and he will be the man to beat in Levi as well.

After Levi, the World Cup moves to Gurgl on 21 and 22 November for the next slaloms, then to Killington in the United States on 28 and 29 November for the women's giant slalom and slalom, where Shiffrin returns to slalom. Gurgl resort opens on 16 November, five days before the World Cup arrives, which shows how November works for World Cup resorts. The race is the opening, not the result of a long season.

For skiers, the safest options this week are glaciers and northern resorts that are already open, including Solden, Hintertux, Zermatt, Saas-Fee, Levi and Ruka, plus Engelberg, Murren and Sulden in the Alps. Kitzbuhel on Friday is the next step in the spread of winter, even if it is only in part. The cross-country World Cup opens in Ruka later in November, and that is when the Bolshunov question stops being a committee discussion and starts being a start list. If his name is not on it, the CAS clock starts ticking.

Related live posts: Falun 2027 in Limbo: The World Championships With No Backup Host, 111 Days Out, and Levi Slalom Preview Without Shiffrin: Who Wins the Reindeer, Plus Kitzbuhel Opens Friday.

Sources: NRK via Newsy Today, FIS blocks Aleksandr Bolshunov from international competition, 4 November 2026; Nordic Magazine, Alexander Bolshunov, his neutral status still uncertain and the prospect of an appeal to the CAS, 5 November 2026; Nordic Magazine, speculation mounting in Russia over Alexander Bolshunov's neutral status, 2 November 2026; CAS media release, Ad Hoc Division does not have jurisdiction to consider Bolshunov application, 29 January 2026; Nordic Magazine, Val di Fiemme denies any bid to replace Falun as host of the 2027 World Championships, 1 November 2026; FIS, Crans-Montana, Falun, Montafon ready for World Championships, 31 October 2026.