Vladyslav Heraskevych of Ukraine removed from Winter Olympics for wearing helmet honoring war victims

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych was not allowed to compete at the Milan Cortina Games after he refused a last-minute request from the International Olympic Committee to change his helmet.

The helmet honors more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches who were killed in the war with Russia, and Heraskevych wanted to wear it during his race.About 45 minutes before the event began, officials told him he could not compete if he kept the helmet. For three days, he knew he might be removed from the Games because the IOC says athletes cannot make statements during competition. Even so, he wore the helmet in training and said he would continue to wear it in the race.

“I believe, deeply, the IBSF and IOC understand that I’m not violating any rules,” Heraskevych said. “Also, I would say (it's) painful that it really looks like discrimination because many athletes already were expressing themselves. ... They didn't face the same things. So, suddenly, just the Ukrainian athlete in this Olympic Games will be disqualified for the helmet.”IOC President Kirsty Coventry had planned to watch Alpine skiing in Cortina d'Ampezzo on Thursday, but instead she went to the sliding center to meet Vladyslav Heraskevych.

She was waiting at the top of the track when he arrived around 8:15 a.m. They spoke in private a few minutes later. After about 10 minutes of discussion, she was not able to change his decision.“We didn't find common ground in this regard,” Heraskevych said.After the meeting, Coventry spoke with reporters and became emotional at times. She said she had hoped for a different result. In an official statement, the IOC said the decision was made with regret.“As you’ve all seen over the last few days, we’ve allowed for Vladyslav to use his helmet in training,” Coventry said. “No one, no one — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging. The messaging is a powerful message. It’s a message of remembrance. It’s a message of memory and no one is disagreeing with that. The challenge that we are facing is that we wanted to ask or come up with a solution for just the field of play.

”During their meeting, Coventry and Heraskevych agreed that the helmet, which shows the faces of more than 20 people killed in the war, is not easy to see while he is racing. Skeleton athletes move down the track at speeds of more than 120 kph (75 mph), so the images are hard to notice.The IOC hoped this could lead to a compromise. Since the faces cannot be clearly seen during the race, officials asked if he would consider not wearing the helmet while competing.He would not budge."Sadly, we’ve not been able to come to that solution," Coventry said. “I really wanted to see him race today. It’s been an emotional morning.”Heraskevych said he would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the race is already happening. Medals will be decided Friday. Regardless of what CAS says, if anything, his chance to race in these Games is gone.“Disqualified. I think that’s enough to understand what the modern IOC really is and how it disgraces the idea of the Olympic movement," Ukrainian skier Kateryna Kotsar wrote on Instagram.

"Vladyslav Heraskevych, for us and for the whole world, you’re a champion. Even without starting.”The IOC had supported Ukraine’s top skeleton athlete in the past. At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, he held a sign that said “No war in Ukraine” after his final run. The IOC said he was calling for peace and did not break any rules.This time, Heraskevych said he thinks the IOC is not consistent in how it decides what messages are allowed.

He pointed to other examples. U.S. figure skater Maxim Naumov brought a photo of his late parents to the kiss-and-cry area after his performance in Milan. His parents were former world champions who died in a plane crash on Jan. 29, 2025. Heraskevych also mentioned Israeli skeleton athlete Jared Firestone, who wore a kippah at the opening ceremony with the names of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed in the 1972 Munich attack.“A competitor literally placed the memory of the dead on his head to honor them,” Heraskevych wrote on Instagram. “I frankly do not understand how these two cases are fundamentally different."He was fourth at the world championships last year and was consistently among the fastest in training leading into the Olympic races. A medal was certainly within reach, but to Heraskevych, the helmet mattered more.“The International Olympic Committee destroyed our dreams,” said Mykhailo Heraskevych, the slider’s coach and father. “It’s not fair.”