Ukrainian Olympian Is Disqualified Over Helmet With Images of War Dead
Tariq Panja reported from Milan.
A Ukrainian athlete was disqualified from the Winter Olympics in Italy on Thursday because he had planned to wear a helmet commemorating countrymen killed in the war with Russia.
Olympic officials had told the athlete, Vladyslav Heraskevych, that the helmet violated the Games’ prohibition on political speech. Mr. Heraskevych, who competes in skeleton, a sledding event on an ice track, had said this week that he planned to race with the helmet anyway.
Moments before the competition on Thursday morning, Mr. Heraskevych held talks at the track in Cortina d’Ampezzo with the president of the International Olympic Committee, Kirsty Coventry. The meeting ended with Mr. Heraskevych barred from competing and Ms Coventry in tears following a failure to reach a compromise.
The incident is the Games’ biggest crisis, underscored by the direct and personal intervention in the matter by Ms. Coventry, who is presiding over her first Olympic Games. Questions over Mr. Heraskevych’s helmet had reverberated for days from Cortina to Milan, where the I.O.C. leadership is based during the Games, and all the way to Kyiv, where Ukrainian officials denounced Olympic officials’ decision.
At issue, the I.O.C. said, is its stated commitment to preserve what its chief spokesman Mark Adams described as “the sanctity of the field of play.”
The I.O.C.’s rulebook has long taken a firm line against forms of political protest, but in 2020 Olympic officials loosened some of those rules to allow athletes to make statements during the competition on social media or to journalists. Mr. Heraskevych had worn what he called his “remembrance helmet” during practice runs this week, but a clash had loomed for days over his use of it in the competition, where political speech is strictly banned.
Just before the races began on Thursday morning, the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, the sport’s governing body, barred him because “the helmet he intended to wear was not compliant with the rules.”
Mr. Adams said at a daily news conference on Thursday that the I.O.C. had offered several concessions to Mr. Heraskevych — including to allow him to bring his helmet into a post-race media zone — but the athlete refused those offers.
“Sports without rules cannot function,” Mr. Adams said.
The I.O.C. had said that it withdrew Mr. Heraskevych’s accreditation to the Games, but it was unclear if he had to leave the Olympics, where his stance has made him one of the more prominent athletes, even if he had not been expected to contend for a medal.
The case has become the latest illustration of politics intruding on the Olympics despite I.O.C. rules. Mr. Adams defended those rules, saying they must remain in place for the Games not to descend into chaos, given so many other conflicts around the world.
“If everyone wanted to express themselves in that way beyond a black armband, it would create a field of play which becomes a field of expression,” he said.
Mr. Heraskevych, 27, has said that his “remembrance helmet” depicted people who were killed during Russia’s war with Ukraine, some of them athletes, including friends of his. He rejected the alternative of wearing a black armband, saying there were not enough such armbands in all of Cortina to honor everybody who has been killed in Russia’s attacks on Ukraine since the launch of its full-scale invasion nearly four years ago.
Though I.O.C. has tried to present the war in Ukraine as just one of many ongoing conflicts, Russia remains the only country formally barred from Olympic competition — a ban that came into effect in 2022 after the Russian Olympic Committee absorbed official sporting bodies in four occupied regions of Ukraine.
Before the competition, Mr. Heraskevych wrote on social media: “I am convinced that we did not violate any I.O.C. rules, and therefore we have every right to wear this helmet.”
Ukrainian officials and other athletes have expressed support for Mr. Heraskevych. On Tuesday, Olena Smaha, a Ukrainian who competes in luge, wore a message on her glove during her competition that said: “Remembrance is not a violation.”
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said that Mr. Heraskevych’s disqualification was “a moment of shame” for the I.O.C.
“He simply wanted to commemorate fellow athletes killed in war,” Mr. Sybiha wrote on social media. “There is nothing wrong with that under any rules or ethics.”
Victor Mather, who has been a reporter and editor at The Times for 25 years, covers sports and breaking news.
Tariq Panja is a global sports correspondent, focusing on stories where money, geopolitics and crime intersect with the sports world.
Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine
Pummeling Ukraine’s Power Grid: Russia struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, forcing emergency outages across Ukraine after peace talks concluded with few signs of progress.
Starlink Access: Russian troops fighting in Ukraine have reported losing their Starlink satellite internet, according to Russia’s pro-war military bloggers, after the SpaceX tycoon Elon Musk acted on a Ukrainian request to curtail access to his network, which Russian soldiers had been using illicitly.
Russian Comedian Gets Prison Time: The comedian, Artemy Ostanin, was convicted of “inciting hatred” by making a joke during a stand-up routine in March.
Ukrainians Consider the Once Unthinkable: Polls show a growing acceptance of territorial concessions among a war-weary public, if Ukraine receives strong security guarantees.
Struggle on the Front: The swift advance of Moscow’s forces into the town of Huliaipole showcases a central challenge for Kyiv: how to defend 700 miles with too few troops.
Dogs in Ukraine: Researchers discovered surprising changes to former pets along the front line of combat with Russia.
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