Our start, attention: a guide to the main tournaments with Russian athletes
The Paralympics in Italy became the first truly major tournament in which Russian athletes competed without restrictions. The result was impressive. Only six athletes were invited to the Games, as they did not have time to participate in the selection process due to the late lifting of sanctions. However, even such a small team managed to take third place in the unofficial medal standings. The Russian national anthem was played on Italian arenas eight times — that's how many gold awards our Paralympians won. We are telling you at which other major competitions in 2026 Russians will be able to perform with their national symbols.
Adult wrestling
The lifting of restrictions mainly concerns Russian juniors, however, adult athletes in some sports already have a victory anthem. Martial arts has become one of the key areas for a full-fledged return to world sports. As noted by ROC Chairman Mikhail Degtyarev, the flag was returned to judo as the first Olympic sport.
The Executive Committee of the International Judo Federation (IJF) voted to allow Russian athletes to compete under national symbols on November 27 last year. The very next day, our judoka were able to take advantage of this opportunity at the Grand Slam tournament in Abu Dhabi. In 2026, in addition to the Grand Prix and Grand Slam stages, Russians will participate in the World and European championships. The continental tournament will be held next month in Tbilisi.
The schedule of the main judo tournaments in 2026:
April 16-19. The European Championship. Tbilisi, Georgia. Men and women
October 4-10. World championship. Baku, Azerbaijan. Men and women
October 11. World championship. Baku, Azerbaijan. Mixed teams
November 7th. The European Championship. Belgrade, Serbia. Mixed teams
The judoists were followed by other international federations from the world of martial arts — sambo, kickboxing, Thai boxing and taekwondo. Of the listed disciplines, only the last one is Olympic. Restrictions on Russian junior and adult athletes of the World Taekwondo Federation were lifted on January 31, but it is still unclear whether Russians will be able to perform with the flag and anthem at the upcoming European Championships. The tournament will be held from May 12 to May 14 in Munich.
SAMBO wrestlers will compete at the European Championships from May 15 to 17 in Tbilisi, and the World Championships will be held in autumn — November 6-8 in Samarkand. The Muay Thai Championships and World Championships will be held from June 16 to 26 in Kuala Lumpur, while the European Championships are scheduled for October in Paris.
Without borders
In December 2025, the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that international federations allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in tournaments in youth disciplines with a flag and anthem. These recommendations apply to both individual and team sports.
Many federations reacted positively to the new position of the IOC: volleyball, fencing, chess, wrestling, weightlifting, baseball and softball, equestrian sports, curling, ski mountaineering, modern pentathlon, water sports and field hockey.
However, there are still federations that are in no hurry to make final decisions. In particular, in the most medal—intensive form of the Olympic Games, athletics, the issue of admission can be considered only in July by the executive committee of World Athletics. The International Gymnastics Federation planned to make a decision on juniors in early March at a meeting in Las Vegas, but postponed the verdict until May.
Russian wrestlers have already managed to go with a flag and an anthem to the European Under-23 Championship, which was held in Serbia in March. Our youth took the first place in the medal standings with five gold awards. The next major tournament for wrestlers will be the European Under-17 Championships (May 11-17) and Under-15 Championships (May 20-25), which will be held in Bulgaria. World and continental championships for different ages will also be held in July and August in Macedonia, Azerbaijan and Slovakia. And the U-23 Youth World Cup will be hosted by Las Vegas in September.
The Russian national anthem was played three times at the European Fencing Championships in Tbilisi in February. In addition, one silver and four bronze medals were won. As a result, the Russian team took first place in the team competition by a wide margin over Italy, which won one gold and three silver medals. The strongest juniors of the planet will meet in July at the World Championships in Rio de Janeiro.
The International Weightlifting Federation is loyal to us. Poland was supposed to host the Old World Under-23 Championship in September. However, the executive Council of the European Federation withdrew the right to host the tournament due to problems with issuing visas to athletes from Russia and Belarus. The competition will eventually take place in October in Albania. Our athletes with a flag and anthem will also be able to compete at the Junior World Cup in Egypt (May 2-8), as well as the World Youth Championship in Colombia (July 5-11).
On February 1, the decision on the full return of juniors from World Aquatics, which controls four Olympic sports, came into force. Representatives of synchronized swimming will have the next big start — on May 4-7, boys and girls aged 13 to 15 will gather in Luxembourg for the continental championship. Hungary will host the World Championship in this sport (August 12-16). The world's strongest diving athletes will compete in Croatia (August 18-28), and open water swimming experts in Argentina (September 3-6). The European Swimming Pool Championship will be hosted by Germany (July 7-12).
Main stop
So far, our juniors do not have many opportunities to compete on the international stage in team sports. Yes, in water polo, which is also practiced by WorldAquatic, Russians should start competing in big tournaments this year. However, in volleyball, where our full participation has been approved by both the world and European federations, everything is not so simple. The tickets for the World and European championships in 2026 have already been distributed, so the return is expected no earlier than 2027. We are also counting on admission to international competitions of Russian junior and youth handball teams. Sergey Shishkarev, the head of the Federal State Fiscal Service, announced that the decision has already been made and will be announced soon.
The biggest sporting event of 2026, where we will be able to perform under our own flag and anthem, will be the Summer Youth Olympics. It will be held from October 31 to November 13 in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. The Games will feature 153 sets of awards in 25 sports. At the last such competitions, which took place in Buenos Aires in 2018, the Russian national team won a landslide victory in the unofficial medal standings.: 29 gold, 18 silver and 12 bronze medals. The Chinese, who became the second, lagged far behind (18-9-9). Now we plan to repeat the success.
— We have to go to the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar in full with a flag, in costumes with national symbols. That's where we have to win. That's our plan," Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev said in January.
There is a possibility that the Russian flag will be at another Olympiad in 2026, the chess One. On December 14 last year, at the FIDE General Assembly, delegates supported both full (with national symbols) and partial (in neutral status) admission of Russians. But no final decision has been made. The head of the organization, Arkady Dvorkovich, said that FIDE would contact the IOC for advice. In January, the chess federations of five countries appealed the lifting of the sanction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Russians still compete under the FIDE banner at tournaments. Perhaps something will change by September, when the Olympics will be held, which will be hosted by Samarkand.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
