Zelensky blasts Olympics ban for Ukrainian athlete over memorial helmet

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO (Italy): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that the decision to ban skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych from the Winter Olympics for refusing to ditch a helmet depicting victims of the war with Russia plays “into the hands of aggressors”.

Gestures of a political nature during competition are forbidden under the Olympic charter.

The International Olympic Committee said Heraskevych had failed “to adhere to the IOC athlete expression guidelines”.

The athlete had insisted he would continue to wear the headgear, which carries pictures of Ukrainian sportsmen and women killed since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, in his event at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games.

The IOC said in a statement: “(The decision) was taken by the jury of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) based on the fact that the helmet he intended to wear was not compliant with the rules.”

A defiant Heraskevych posted on X: “This is (the) price of our dignity”, alongside a picture of his helmet.

Zelensky took aim at the IOC.

“The Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors,” the Ukrainian president said in a post on social media.

“We are proud of Vladyslav and of what he did. Having courage is worth more than any medal.”

Athletes are permitted to express their views in press conferences and on social media, and the IOC had said on Tuesday it would allow Heraskevych to wear a plain black armband.

A further offer to allow him to carry his helmet into the mixed zone, where athletes talk to journalists after their race, was also rejected.

“Mr Heraskevych was able to display his helmet in all training runs,” Thursday’s IOC statement added. “The IOC also offered him the option of displaying it immediately after the competition when going through the mixed zone.”

Heraskevych has the option to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but CAS told AFP it had not heard from him.

IOC president Kirsty Coventry met with Heraskevych early on Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to persuade him to change his mind before his competition started.

Coventry, a former Olympic gold medallist in swimming, was in tears after the meeting, according to video images.

“I was not speaking to him in that room as a president, I’m speaking to him as an athlete,” she said.

“We have these rules in place to try and be fair and also to try and allow for us to do both things right — to allow for athletes to express themselves, but also to allow for athletes to be safe.”

An impassioned Heraskevych, who is allowed to remain at the Games despite not competing, told reporters at the Cortina Sliding Centre that he believed his disqualification was “totally wrong”.

“Especially when we had already in this Olympic Games other cases, when athletes in almost equal situations were treated differently and didn’t face any sanctions,” he said.

“I have really bad thoughts, and I believe that this situation also plays along with Russian propaganda,” he added.

Heraskevych said Ukrainians were being “killed for nothing” in the war, adding: “I believe we should honour people who sacrificed their lives.”

IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a press briefing in Milan that Olympic chiefs “dearly wanted him to compete”.

“It would have sent a very powerful message,” he added. “It is not about his message, it is not about the message he wanted to give, it is the place. We cannot have athletes having pressure put on them by their political masters.”