Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych has been banned by the IOC of wearing a helmet with pictures of Ukrainian athletes killed in the war, some of whom were Heraskevych's friends. The 27-year-old Ukrainian, who escaped a sanction in the 2022 Beijing Games for displaying a banner reading 'No War in Ukraine' days before the Russian invasion, said that he wanted to use the 2026 Winter Olympic Games as a platform to draw attention to the Ukraine war, respecting IOC's rules.
But it turns out that the helmet is still unacceptable according to IOC's rules of banning all political, religious, or racial demonstrations. IOC allowed Heraskevych to wear it on Monday during training for the skeleton race, but won't allow him to use it during the first race on Thursday, February 12.
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As an exception, IOC will allow him to wear to wear a black armband during the competition to make that commemoration. "We tried to address his desire with compassion," IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said in a press conference on Tuesday. "The IOC fully understands the desire of athletes to remember friends who lost their lives in that conflict. We feel this is a good compromise of the situation."
"The Games need to be separated from all types of interference so that all athletes can concentrate on their performances. We need to keep that specific moment as pure as we can for the competition", Adams said.
However, Heraskevych is not happy with the decision, describing it as unfair treatment, as he doesn't see any violation of IOC's rule 50 because "it is not discrimination propaganda, it is not political propaganda" (via Reuters).
Heraskevych was also very critical with IOC's decision to allow individual Russian or Belarusian athletes to compete under the neutral flag, despite the ban to countries themselves, and suggested that only Russian or Belarusian athletes who fled the country and opposed the war should be allowed to enter under a refugee banner.