Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych, a probable medal contender on the Winter Olympics, was barred from racing Thursday after refusing a last-minute plea from the International Olympic Committee to not use a helmet that honours greater than 20 athletes and coaches killed in his country’s war with Russia.
The choice got here roughly 45 minutes before the beginning of the competition and ended a three-day saga where Heraskevych knew he was risking being pulled from the Games by wearing the helmet, one which the IOC says breaks rules against making statements on the sphere of play.
The International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation said his decision to wear the helmet was “inconsistent with the Olympic Charter and Guidelines on Athlete Expression.”
He wore the helmet in training, however the IOC asked for him to wear a distinct helmet in races. It offered concessions, similar to wearing a black armband or letting him display the helmet once he was off the ice.
“I imagine, deeply, the IBSF and IOC understand that I’m not violating any rules,” Heraskevych said.
“Also, I might say (it’s) painful that it really looks like discrimination because many athletes already were expressing themselves. … They didn’t face the identical things. So, suddenly, just the Ukrainian athlete on this Olympic Games will likely be disqualified for the helmet.”
IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who was slated to be in Cortina d’Ampezzo to see Alpine skiing, went to the sliding center as an alternative to fulfill Heraskevych.
She was waiting at the highest of the track when he arrived around 8:15 a.m., and so they met privately. After about 10 minutes, Coventry was unable to alter Heraskevych’s mind.
“We didn’t find common ground on this regard,” Heraskevych said.
Tears rolled down Coventry’s face after the meeting. The Olympic champion swimmer made clear that she wanted a distinct end result, and the IOC said the choice was made with regret.
Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych talks to the media at the beginning house of the sliding center on the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026.
(AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
“As you’ve all seen over the previous few days, we’ve allowed for Vladyslav to make use of his helmet in training,” Coventry said.
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“Nobody, nobody — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging. The messaging is a strong message. It’s a message of remembrance. It’s a message of memory and nobody is disagreeing with that. The challenge that we face is that we desired to ask or give you an answer for just the sphere of play.”
Coventry and Heraskevych agreed that the helmet isn’t clearly visible during races anyway, on condition that sliders are zipping down the icy chute at around 120 kph (75 mph). That, the IOC hoped, was the window to a compromise. Heraskevych wouldn’t budge.
“Sadly, we’ve not been capable of come to that solution,” Coventry said. “I actually desired to see him race today. It’s been an emotional morning.”
Heraskevych said he would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, however the race went on without him. The primary two runs were Thursday, the last two are Friday.
No matter what CAS says, if anything, his likelihood to race in these Games is gone. The IOC is letting him keep his credential, meaning he can remain on the Olympics as an athlete — just not a competing one.
A few dozen Russian athletes are being allowed to compete on the Olympics as neutral individuals together with seven Belarusians. They usually are not allowed to compete under their national flag or anthem.
Heraskevych has spoken out several times about why he believes they shouldn’t be on the Olympics and said the IOC’s decision “plays together with Russian propaganda.”
The choice drew immediate condemnation from officials in Ukraine and a few athletes.
“Sport shouldn’t mean amnesia, and the Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
“Unfortunately, the choice of the International Olympic Committee to disqualify Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych says otherwise.”
“Disqualified. I believe that’s enough to know what the fashionable IOC really is and the way it disgraces the concept of the Olympic movement,” added Ukrainian skier Kateryna Kotsar on Instagram. “Vladyslav Heraskevych, for us and for the entire world, you’re a champion. Even without starting.”
The IOC had sided with Ukraine’s top slider before.
When he displayed a “No war in Ukraine” sign after his fourth and final run on the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the IOC said he was simply calling for peace and didn’t find him in violation of the Olympic charter.
On this frame from video, Vladyslav Heraskevych, of Ukraine, holds an indication that reads “No War in Ukraine” after ending a run at the lads’s skeleton competition on the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, within the Yanqing district of Beijing.
(NBC via AP)
This time, Heraskevych said he believes there are inconsistencies in how the IOC decides what statements are allowed.
Amongst those he cited: U.S. figure skater Maxim Naumov bringing a photograph of his late parents — former pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were among the many 67 people killed in a plane crash on Jan. 29, 2025 — to the kiss-and-cry area after his skate in Milan this week, and Israeli skeleton athlete Jared Firestone’s decision to look on the opening ceremony wearing a kippah that bore the names of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed within the 1972 attack throughout the Munich Games.
“A competitor literally placed the memory of the dead on his head to honor them,” Heraskevych wrote on Instagram. “I frankly don’t understand how these two cases are fundamentally different.”
Firestone said he admired Heraskevych. “I believe he’s a person with strong values,” he said.
In Milan, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said if athletes were allowed to display messaging without restrictions on the sphere of play “that might result in a chaotic situation.”
“Sport without rules cannot function. … If we’ve got no rules, we’ve got no sport,” Adams said.
Heraskevych was fourth on the world championships last yr and was among the many fastest in training leading into the Olympic races. A medal was definitely nearby, 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.”