Ukraine’s bid to let skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych use a helmet honoring athletes killed in the war with Russia has been rejected by the International Olympic Committee.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has barred Ukraine’s skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych from wearing a helmet that honors Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia.

“The IOC fully understands the desire ⁠of athletes to remember friends who lost their lives in that conflict,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a news conference ‌on Tuesday.

“He has done that in training and on social media he has expressed ‌his feelings ⁠but what we have said is this helmet contravenes the … guidelines,” he added.

Skeleton racer to wear black armband

Ukraine’s Olympic Committee on Tuesday asked the IOC to allow Heraskevych to wear the “helmet of remembrance” at the Milano-Cortina Games.

The committee made the request after an IOC representative told Heraskevych he cannot use the helmet he has worn in training, which features images of athletes killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

The Ukrainian Olympic Committee insists the design contains no political slogans or discriminatory elements.

“The helmet was created to honour Ukrainian athletes killed while defending Ukraine or who became victims of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Olympic Committee said in a statement.

The IOC denied the request ahead of the skeleton competition, which starts Thursday.

However, the IOC announced that, as a compromise, Heraskevych will be permitted to wear a black armband when competing at the games.

“We ‌feel this is a good compromise,” Adams said. He said the field of play needed to remain as neutral as possible.

“We need to keep that specific moment (on the field of play) as pure as we can for the competition. People can express themselves however they want to elsewhere,” he explained.

Helmet honouring war victims

Heraskevych, who is generally considered a medal hopeful at the games, said he could not understand how the helmet “hurt anyone.”

It included photos of figure skater Dmytro Sharpar, boxer Pavlo Ishchenko, hockey player Oleksiy Loginov, and others, some of whom were killed on the front lines, Heraskevych said.

Before the IOC’s decission Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced his support for Heraskevych on social media.

“This truth cannot be inconvenient, inappropriate, or called a “political demonstration at a sporting event.” It is a reminder to the entire world of what modern Russia is,” he wrote.

Athletes from Russia are not allowed to take part in the Olympic Games under a Russian flag, but 13 Russians are taking part in the Winter Olympics as “Individual Neutral Athletes.”

The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee in February 2022, arguing that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched days after the Beijing Winter Games, violated the Olympic Truce.

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko

DW News