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Skier Daria Nepryaeva broke through to the 2026 Olympics: how the athlete got a license to Milan
Russian skier Daria Nepryaeva has received an invitation to the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo after successfully passing the international selection process in a neutral status. The athlete has come a long way from junior starts to stable results at the World Cup stages and is ready to compete for medals in sprints, distance races and team disciplines. Read more about Daria Nepryaeva's sporting career and her prospects at the Games in the Izvestia article.
The family of champions and the beginning of the road to skiing
Daria Nepryaeva was born on May 18, 2002 in Tver in a family of professional skiers. Her parents Mikhail and Irina Nepryaev were members of the Russian national ski racing team in the 1990s and won numerous awards at Russian and international competitions.
Irina Nepryaeva graduated from Tver State University with a degree in physical education and sports, after which she became a ski racing coach. Mikhail Nepryaev holds the post of Deputy Chief of Staff in the government of the Tver region and is a member of the leadership of the regional Ski Racing Federation.
The family has three children. Her older sister, Natalia Terentyeva (Nepryaeva)— is an Olympic champion in the 2022 relay, a silver and bronze medalist at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and a bronze medalist at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. She is one of the strongest skiers in Russia, and Daria has always considered her the main guide and competitor. His younger brother Dmitry is also engaged in cross-country skiing and is already achieving success at children's competitions.
From the age of five, Daria accompanied her parents and sister to training camps, and soon started skiing under the guidance of her mother and coach Alexander Smirnov. The athlete received her education at the Olympic Reserve School No. 1 in Tver and the Smolensk State University of Sports at the Department of Theory and Methodology of Cross-country Skiing.
Daria Nepryaeva's sports career
In 2018, the 15-year-old athlete competed at the Central Federal District Junior Championships and took 17th place in the freestyle sprint among more than fifty participants. A year later, a notable breakthrough followed: in December 2019, Nepryaeva won the 5 km classic race in Syktyvkar and received the right to compete at the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne. There she became the best Russian in the 5 km sprint and classic.
Daria Nepryaeva in the quarterfinals of the girls' sprint at the cross-country skiing competitions at the III Winter Youth Olympic Games 2020 in Lausanne, Switzerland
In the spring of 2020, Daria won the bronze medal at the final of the X Winter Spartakiad in Krasnoyarsk, and at the end of the season she topped the rating of the Russian Ski Racing Federation among athletes aged 17-18.
In January 2021, Nepryaeva became the champion of the Tver region at a distance of 10 km, and in November she won the stage of the Cup of Russia in the 5 km classic style race. The culmination of the junior period was the winter of 2022: at the World Youth Championships in Linga, Norway, Daria won gold in the individual race and silver in the relay, after which she moved to the adult category.
The first seasons among the strongest skiers in the country were not easy. At the 2022 Russian Championships, she took 19th place in the sprint and eighth in the top ten, losing among other things to her older sister. But since 2023, Daria has been steadily winning prizes. She took silver in the relay at the Russian Championships in Tyumen, and 4th in the sprint at the Russian Cup final. In 2024, bronze medals began to fall in an avalanche: the sprint at the All-Russian Spartakiad, the relay race and the team sprint at the Russian Championship and the Cup final.
Daria Nepryaeva, who took first place in the overall standings in the women's cross-country skiing competition at the Russian Cup of Cross-country Skiing in Kirovsk
The 2025 season was a breakthrough: three victories at the stages of the Russian Cup, the final with silver in 3 km, 10 km and sprint. At the Russian Championships, he won gold in the team sprint and relay, silver in skiathlon, and bronze in the 10 km. There are prizes in sprints and 30 km in roller skis.
The personal life of Daria Nepryaeva
Daria Nepryaeva is in a relationship with skier Sergey Volkov, whom she met back in the junior national team. The athlete admitted that the busy schedule of training camps and travel makes it difficult to communicate with people outside of sports.
In an interview, Daria also said that after completing her sports career, she would like to try her hand at business.
Selection for the 2026 Olympics and World Cup appearances
In December 2025, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation approved her admission to the 2026 Olympics, which will be held from February 6 to 22. At the World Cup in Davos, Nepryaeva met the qualifying standard in the freestyle sprint, and then received quotas in distance racing. At the end of December, she competed at the Tour de Ski in Toblach, Italy, where she finished eighth in the mass start and tenth overall.
In January 2026, the athlete showed the 16th result at the "top ten" classic in Oberhof, made it to the quarterfinals of the sprint in Homs and entered the top 8 of the 20 km mass start.
On January 21, 2026, the IOC invited Daria to the OI-2026 in neutral status (AIN). She accepted the invitation. The coach of the Russian national team, Egor Sorin, said that she will run all the distance races to which she will be allowed at the Games in Italy. Nepryaeva will perform on February 7, 10, 12 and 22.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
