What is AIN at the Winter Olympics? The initials actually don’t represent a country

A total of 20 athletes are competing under the designation “AIN” at the Milan Cortina Olympics – an abbreviation often clearly visible on their uniforms.

The letters have trigged a number of questions, leading many to wonder what country the initials stands for. However, the abbreviation doesn’t actually represent a country at all.

“AIN” is the French acronym for Individual Neutral Athletes, the designation for athletes approved by the International Olympic Committee to compete independently and not in association with a specific nation.

In the current Games, 13 Russian athletes and seven others from Belarus are competing as “AINs.”

While the IOC prohibited Russia from entering the Olympics following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the committee began permitting athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to compete as neutral individuals in the immediate years that followed.

Neutral status can be approved by the IOC for athletes in individual sports who were judged to have not actively supported their countries’ war on Ukraine, and who are not contracted to the military or state security agencies.

Not all sport federations allow neutral athletes to attempt qualification, however.

The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation does not provide athletes a route to qualify as neutral athletes, USAToday reported.

Athletes with the AIN designation can’t compete in team sports under IOC rules, preventing Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in figure skating and hockey.

Russia was also subject to restrictions on team sports during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Russian athletes won 32 medals including five gold competing at ROC — the acronym for Russian Olympic Committee, which was a neutral title as punishment in the long-running scandal of state doping.

In the prior games, the 2020 Tokyo Winter Olympics, athletes also competed under the ROC designation.

But the situation was different for the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, in which athletes who were approved to compete went by “Olympic Athletes from Russia” or OAR. Russia itself was banned from competition after a state-sponsored doping scheme was revealed.