CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Ukraine’s flag bearer during the Olympic opening ceremony plans to continue wearing a helmet that commemorates the lives of Ukrainian athletes lost since Russia’s invasion, despite a ban from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which says it breaks Olympic rules on neutrality.
“I truly believe that we are here today and able to enjoy Olympic sport because of their sacrifice,” skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych said at a news conference Tuesday evening. “They deserve to be with me today and with me on competition day. I will not betray them. The plan is I use it all training days. I used it yesterday, used it today, and I will use it tomorrow and the race day.”
Heraskevych, who announced the ban via his Instagram and X accounts Monday evening, described it as “a decision that simply breaks my heart.” Though he doesn’t want to defy the IOC, he said, he doesn’t believe the helmet violates any rules.
“Rule 50: political propaganda, religious propaganda, racial propaganda. That has nothing to do with this helmet. All these athletes, they were killed, but their voice is so loud, the IOC has heard them,” Heraskevych said Tuesday.
Earlier, Heraskevych also accused the IOC of “betraying those athletes, who were part of the Olympic movement, (by) not allowing them to be honored on the sports arena where these athletes will never be able to step again.”
IOC spokesman Mark Adams confirmed the decision during his daily news conference in Milan on Tuesday. Adams revealed the IOC had received a formal request from Heraskevych for permission to wear the helmet in competition, but said it had already told his coach he would not be able to do so.
“The IOC fully understands the desire of athletes to remember friends or colleagues who have lost their lives in that conflict,” Adams said. “And, by the way, it is the same for other conflicts around the world — there are probably 20 or 30 conflicts around the world at any time.
“There was an informal meeting last night with Heraskevych’s coach. We reiterated our understanding that Ukrainian athletes wish to express their sorrow, and Heraskevych has done that during training and on social media.
“That said, the Olympic Charter conditions of participation, and our athlete expression guidelines, which between 3,000 and 4,000 athletes provided feedback for, make it clear we have to concentrate on athletes’ performance and sport on the field of play.
“The Games need to be separated from not just political and religious topics but all types of interference so that all athletes can concentrate on performance.”
Vladyslav Heraskevych has worn the helmet in training and had hoped to do so in competition. (Tiziana FABI / AFP via Getty Images)
According to Article 50.2 of the Olympic Charter, “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
“What we have said is this helmet contravenes the above-mentioned guidelines,” Adams said. “But that being said, after the meeting with his coach, we decided to make an exception to allow him to wear a black armband during competition. What we have tried to do is address his desires with compassion and understanding.
“We feel (the black armband) is a good compromise. We have said to him that we will make an exception so he can express his mourning in this way.”
In response, Heraskevych said he “truly believes that the IOC doesn’t have enough armbands to honour all the athletes who have fallen in this war.”
“I didn’t want to resist the IOC,” Heraskevych continued. “I want to be part of the Olympic family. I think it’s an important sign to the world. Adams mentioned many conflicts in the world. Yes, let’s show the world the consequences and that it’s horrible. It’s the price of freedom. That should be the message of the Olympic movement. I don’t want to resist or fight; I want to be friends with the IOC. I truly love my sport, and I want to develop this unique sport in Ukraine. I love the Olympic family, and I want people to do sports and enjoy sports.”
The Ukrainian sledder is getting support from others in the sport. Ivo Steinbergs, the head coach of the Latvian skeleton team, joined Heraskevych at Tuesday’s news conference.
“We started this journey in skeleton together, so I know Vlad very well. What he was saying about the support from other nations, it’s really strong. We have supported Ukraine from the beginning of the full-scale invasion, and it’s important we continue to do so. Yesterday, our president from Latvia came to visit the village, and we talked about this situation with the helmet and the IOC trying to disqualify Vlad. He gave his strong support to Vlad, so it’s not only Ukraine alone. Many nations come together to support him. If it comes to disqualification, we will see what we can do and how to support him until the end,” Steinbergs said.
In other social media posts over the last two days, the 27-year-old has made his desire to draw attention to the situation in Ukraine — and the ultimate sacrifices already made by friends of his — very clear.
His stance has also been supported by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who thanked him Monday on X for “reminding the world of the price of our struggle.”
Zelensky also named some of the athletes depicted on Heraskevych’s helmet, including figure skater Dmytro Sharpar, who was killed in combat, and Yevhen Malyshev, a 19-year-old biathlete “killed by the occupiers near Kharkiv.” Heraskevych has also named weightlifter Alina Peregudova, boxer Pavlo Ishchenko and hockey player Oleksiy Loginov among those commemorated.
This is not the first time Heraskevych has used this stage to draw attention to the situation back home. He held a “No War, Ukraine” sign during competition at the 2022 Olympics. The IOC chose not to say anything on that occasion, an apparent inconsistency that Heraskevych has flagged on social media.
“Over these four years, the IOC has changed dramatically,” he wrote on Instagram and X. “Back then, in that action, they saw a call for peace and did not apply any sanctions against me…yet a violation was found in the ‘helmet of memory.’”
Whether the IOC has changed dramatically is debatable, but new IOC president Kirsty Coventry seems determined to keep the Olympics as free from politics as possible. The former Olympic swimming champion from Zimbabwe used her speech at last week’s IOC session in Milan — her first at one of the Olympic family’s big gatherings since replacing Thomas Bach as president — to make the case for neutrality.
“We are a sports organization,” she said. “We understand politics, and we know we don’t operate in a vacuum. But our game is sport.”
This has led many observers to conclude she would like to see all sporting sanctions against Russia lifted. The world’s largest country, which is second only to the United States in the all-time Olympic medal table, has been suspended from the Olympics since 2017, initially for its state-sponsored doping program but then, more recently, for its violations of the Olympic Charter in relation to the invasion of Ukraine. As a result, only 13 Russians are at Milan Cortina, and they are competing as Individual Neutral Athletes.
The decision on Heraskevych has sparked wider criticism. Rob Koehler, the director general of the advocacy group Global Athlete, told The Athletic that “a black armband is not sufficient,” saying the IOC’s guidelines on Rule 50 regarding “freedom of expression” are archaic and opaque.