Luge athletes excluded from next Olympics

Viktoriia Demchenko of Russia competes during the women’s race at the Luge World Cup, a test event for the 2022 Winter Olympics, at the Yanqing National Sliding Center in Beijing, Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Russian luge athletes will be banned from competing at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics even as individuals with neutral status, the sliding sport's governing body decided Wednesday. The International Luge Federation has kept Russian athletes from competing in major international luge events — such as World Cups and world championships — since the 2021-22 season in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine and…