Ukrainian Winter Olympics athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych has been disqualified from competing in the skeleton event today, after he made clear his plans to defy Olympic rules and wear a helmet that depicted fellow athletes who have been killed during Russia’s illegal four-year invasion of his home country.
As reported by the New York Times, Heraskevych had made clear his intentions to wear the helmet during both practice and competitive runs in the skeleton event, and had said that he would not be deterred by threats of disqualification.
Just before competition was due to begin today, February 12, the current president of the International Olympic Committee, Kirsty Coventry, met with Heraskevych and his father to discuss the situation. The athlete clearly did not back down, and as a result was disqualified from the event. The Times says both Coventry and Heraskevych’s father were in tears following the conversation.
Following this, the Times reports Heraskevych spoke to journalists in Cortina, saying, “There are things more important than medals. I stood up for what I believe in.”
Sport shouldn’t mean amnesia, and the Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors. Unfortunately, the decision of the International Olympic Committee to disqualify Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych says otherwise. This is certainly… pic.twitter.com/gGXizj5C5m
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 12, 2026
Ahead of the disqualification, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted his support for Heraskevych to X earlier today, stating,
“Sport shouldn’t mean amnesia, and the Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors. Unfortunately, the decision of the International Olympic Committee to disqualify Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych says otherwise. This is certainly not about the principles of Olympism, which are founded on fairness and the support of peace.”
The Olympic rules are, in one sense, unambiguous over banning athletes using the event to make political statements. Given this, the disqualification was grimly inevitable. However, it’s obviously farcical to pretend that silence is apolitical, or indeed that the current ban on Russia from competing in the Olympics is in any sense not a political decision. The event exists within the enormously complex politics of a conflicted planet, and the pretense that the Olympics is somehow ideologically detached from this reality is naive and very much a political statement of its own.
This also fails to recognize the nuance of Heraskevych’s helmet, which simply depicts images of a number of athletes who have been killed by Russian forces during their ongoing illegal invasion of Ukraine. It doesn’t feature text, nor any overt statement. Plenty of athletes during the event have worn clothing that’s recognizing loved ones, flashing images to cameras when celebrating after competing. Heraskevych calmly and smartly addresses all of this, and the hypocrisy of the Olympic Committee, in a recent Instagram post: