{"id":588031,"date":"2026-02-13T22:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/588031\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T22:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:33:12","slug":"ukrainian-loses-appeal-over-helmet-honoring-war-victims-at-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/588031\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian loses appeal over helmet honoring war victims at Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORTINA D\u2019AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych<\/a> took his case to sport\u2019s highest court on Friday, detailing the reasons why he wanted to race at the Milan Cortina Olympics<\/a> in a helmet that paid tribute to his country\u2019s war victims.<\/p>\n

The arbitrator was moved by his story but ruled against him anyway, denying him his last chance for a win of any kind at this year\u2019s Olympics.<\/p>\n

The Court of Arbitration for Sport denied Heraskevych\u2019s appeal of his disqualification from the men\u2019s skeleton race, agreeing with the International Olympic Committee and the sliding sport\u2019s federation that his plan to wear a helmet<\/a> showing the faces of more than 20 Ukrainian coaches and athletes killed since Russia invaded their country four years ago would violate Olympic rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court sided with the IOC and upheld the decision that an athlete could be disqualified from the Olympic Games without actual misconduct, without a technical or safety threat, and before the start,\u201d wrote Yevhen Pronin, Heraskevych\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n

CAS said the sole arbitrator who heard the case sided with IOC policy about what athletes at an Olympics can say on a field of play \u2014 and that the \u201cmemory helmet\u201d Heraskevych brought to the Milan Cortina Games would not align with the rules.<\/p>\n

The arbitrator, CAS said, \u201cfound these limitations reasonable and proportionate,\u201d especially since Heraskevych could show his helmet away from the racing surface, such as in interview areas and on social media. Heraskevych also wore the helmet in training runs.<\/p>\n

CAS added that the arbitrator \u201cis fully sympathetic to Mr. Heraskevych\u2019s commemoration and to his attempt to raise awareness for the grief and devastation suffered by the Ukrainian people, and Ukrainian athletes because of the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appeal, which Heraskevych felt he would win, was largely moot anyway. He was disqualified from the competition 45 minutes before its start on Thursday, and whatever CAS said on Friday wouldn\u2019t have changed that.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooks like this train has left,\u201d Heraskevych said after Friday\u2019s hearing, knowing there was no way he could race.<\/p>\n

He left Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo\u2019s Olympic Village on Thursday night with no plans to return, then headed to Milan and arrived in Munich on Friday night \u2014 helmet in hand \u2014 for a dinner with Ukrainian officials at a security conference. He is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this weekend as well.<\/p>\n

Heraskevych was blocked from racing by the IOC and the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation on Thursday after the slider and his father emerged from a last-minute, last-ditch meeting with IOC President Kirsty Coventry \u2014 who was unable to get Heraskevych to change his mind.<\/p>\n

His disqualification was justified, Coventry reiterated Friday. The IOC made its decision, one that moved Coventry to tears, off the guidelines for athlete expression at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

They say, in part, \u201cthe focus on the field of play during competitions and official ceremonies must be on celebrating athletes\u2019 performances.\u201d Heraskevych never made it to the field of play \u2014 not in competition, anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that he in some ways understood that but was very committed to his beliefs, which I can respect,\u201d Coventry said. \u201cBut sadly, it doesn\u2019t change the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IOC contends the rule is in place for multiple reasons, including protecting the athletes from pressure from their own countries or others about using Olympic platforms to make statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never expected it to be such a big scandal,\u201d Heraskevych said.<\/p>\n

He also said he found his accreditation for the games being taken away, then returned in short order on Thursday in what seemed like a goodwill gesture, was puzzling.<\/p>\n

\u201cA mockery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CAS did agree that Heraskevych should keep his accreditation.<\/p>\n

Heraskevych said he felt his disqualification fed into Russian propaganda, noting he and other Ukrainian athletes have seen Russian flags at events at these games \u2014 even though they are not allowed by Olympic rule. He has previously spoken out against the IOC\u2019s decision to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete at Milan Cortina as \u201cneutral\u201d athletes and said the IOC empowered Russia by awarding it the 2014 Sochi Games.<\/p>\n

He also wondered why other tributes from these Olympics, such as U.S. figure skater Maxim Naumov displaying a photo<\/a> of his late parents \u2014 killed in a plane crash last year<\/a> \u2014 have been permitted without penalty.<\/p>\n

Italian snowboard competitor Roland Fischnaller had a small Russian flag image on the back of his helmet during these games and Israeli skeleton athlete Jared Firestone wore a kippah with the names of the 11 athletes and coaches who were killed representing that country during the 1972 Munich Olympics.<\/p>\n

Pronin wrote that IOC representatives at Friday\u2019s hearing said \u201cthey were not punished because they did not declare this in advance, but did it after the fact, so there was no point in disqualifying them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IOC said those cases were not in violation of any rules. Naumov showed his photo in the kiss-and-cry area and not while he was actually on the ice, Fischnaller\u2019s helmet was a tribute to all the past Olympic sites he competed at with Sochi included, and Firestone\u2019s kippah \u201cwas covered by a beanie,\u201d IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.<\/p>\n

The IOC offered Heraskevych the chance to compete with a different helmet and bring the tribute one through the interview area after his runs. He also could have worn a black armband, which the IOC typically bans. It says it just didn\u2019t want him making a statement by competing in the helmet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the wrong side of history for the IOC,\u201d Heraskevych said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press journalists Annie Risemberg and Stefanie Dazio in Milan and Vasilisa Stepanenko in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORTINA D\u2019AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych took his case to sport\u2019s highest court on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":588032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[224667,191963,13672,4439,57,253359,57987,59238,253357,405,403,44831,254471,235115,253356,62,67,132,68,436,424,107],"class_list":["post-588031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-co-state-wire","tag-colorado","tag-general-news","tag-jared-firestone","tag-kirsty-coventry","tag-mark-adams","tag-maxim-naumov","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-olympic-games","tag-roland-fischnaller","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-skeleton-racing","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-ut-state-wire","tag-utah","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116065704704718977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}