A pair of Russian luge athletes were confirmed Monday as qualifiers for next month’s Milan Cortina Olympics, meaning they will compete against Ukrainian sliders on the sport’s biggest stage.The International Luge Federation — which announced the 78 singles and doubles sleds that have qualified for the games — included Russian men’s singles slider Roman Repilov and women’s singles slider Daria Olesik on its preliminary list.They will compete, just as they did in World Cup races that they were allowed to enter this season, as neutral athletes at the Olympics as part of the sanctions against Russian federations in response to that country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the war that has continued since.Germany and Austria qualified the maximum of 12 athlete spots and nine sleds for the Olympics. Host Italy and the U.S. each had 11 athletes and eight sleds qualify, while Ukraine and Latvia each had 10 sliders and seven sleds make the Olympic fields.Teams could get as many as three men’s singles, three women’s singles, two men’s doubles and one women’s doubles sled into the games. There were nine nations — the U.S., Germany, Austria, Italy, Latvia, China, Poland, Romania and Ukraine — with at least one sled in every discipline, meaning those will be the n …
