A Ukrainian athlete has been disqualified from the Winter Olympics over his insistence on wearing a helmet honoring people killed in his country's war with Russia.
The International Olympic Committee said in a statement early Thursday that skeleton racer Vladylsav Heraskevych, the Ukrainian flag bearer, was "not allowed to participate at Milano Cortina 2026 after refusing to adhere to the IOC athlete expression guidelines."
The decision was announced shortly before Heraskevych was due to compete in the men's skeleton competition, in which he was considered a legitimate medal contender.
“This is price of our dignity,” he said in a post on X. Heraskevych indicated he would appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The IOC made clear earlier this week that it felt his "helmet of remembrance" — featuring pictures of Ukrainian athletes killed during the war — contravened rules prohibiting any kind of political statement by competitors.
Heraskevych insisted the helmet does no such thing and wore it throughout training runs.
Kyiv labeled his disqualification a “moment of shame” for the IOC.
“The Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X. “No rule has been broken,” he insisted, praising Heraskevych for his stand. “Having courage is worth more than any medal,” Zelenskyy added.
The decision was taken, the IOC said, by a jury of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation.
Multiple meetings and exchanges were held between Heraskevych and IOC officials. But the committee said the athlete "did not consider any form of compromise," including after a final meeting with the committee’s president, Kirsty Coventry, at the sliding center Thursday.
Coventry, an Olympic champion swimmer, made clear she had wanted a different outcome. “No one, no one — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging. The messaging is a powerful message," she told reporters, with tears rolling down her face as she spoke.
“As you’ve all seen over the last few days, we’ve allowed for Vladyslav to use his helmet in training,” Coventry said. “The challenge that we are facing is that we wanted to ask or come up with a solution for just the field of play.”
Rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter states: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
The IOC insisted it was "very keen for Mr Heraskevych to compete" and offered him a compromise option of allowing him to wear the helmet during training and to display it immediately after the competition, or to wear a black armband to symbolize national mourning — but it drew a line at allowing him to wear the helmet while competing.
“The essence of this case is not about the message, it is about where he wanted to express it,” the IOC said.
Heraskevych displayed a “No war in Ukraine” sign after his final run at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, which the IOC said did not violate its charter as he was simply calling for peace.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion days after the Games ended.
Heraskevych said the images on his helmet in Milan feature figure skater Dmytro Sharpar, his 2016 Youth Olympic Games teammate, and boxer Maksym Halinichev among others killed during the war. Some of them were Olympians.
“I would say (it’s) painful that it really looks like discrimination because many athletes already were expressing themselves. ... They didn’t face the same things. So, suddenly, just the Ukrainian athlete in this Olympic Games will be disqualified for the helmet," Heraskevych said Thursday.
He has also been vocal about the presence of athletes who formerly represented Russia and Belarus at the Olympics, questioning their status and why the IOC has cleared them to compete.
Ukraine's Olympic Committee said in a statement after the ruling Thursday: "Vladislav did not start today, but he was not alone — all of Ukraine was with him. Because when an athlete stands up for truth, honor and memory — this is already a victory."
The country's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, described it as "a moment of shame."
"The IOC has banned not the Ukrainian athlete, but its own reputation," he said in a post on X.
It is "Russians who must be banned, not the commemoration of their victims," Sybiha added.
