{"id":1484704,"date":"2026-02-12T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?guid=5f8445d46b4accb8605b661fb1494fd4"},"modified":"2026-03-02T03:16:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:16:06","slug":"star-ukrainian-athlete-disqualified-from-winter-olympics-for-refusing-to-remove-war-tribute-helmet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1484704","title":{"rendered":"Star Ukrainian athlete disqualified from Winter Olympics for refusing to remove war tribute helmet"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ukraine's Vladyslav Heraskevych, with his helmet, which features pictures of people killed in the war with Russia. Heraskevych was ruled out of the Men's Skeleton event by the International Olympic Committee just over an hour before competition began, pictured at the Cortina Sliding Centre, on day six of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy. Picture date: Thursday February 12, 2026. (Andrew Milligan\/PA Images via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>

(LONDON) -- A Ukrainian athlete has been disqualified and had his accreditation withdrawn at the Winter Olympics after insisting on wearing a \u201chelmet of remembrance\u201d as a tribute to people killed in his country\u2019s ongoing war with Russia, officials said.<\/p>

Vladyslav Heraskevych, a medal hopeful in skeleton and the Ukrainian flag bearer in the opening ceremonies last Friday, learned of the decision shortly before he was supposed to compete in the men\u2019s skeleton competition on Thursday morning.<\/p>

The International Olympic Committee said that it had \u201cdecided with regret to withdraw his accreditation for the Milano Cortina 2026 Games\u201d after meeting with Heraskevych. The committee cited his refusal to compromise on wearing the helmet that he said honored those pictured on his helmet.<\/p>

\"I am disqualified from the race,\u201d Heraskevych said following his disqualification. \u201cCertainly we didn't find common ground in this regard (with the International Olympic Committee).<\/p>

The IOC said that they were \u201cvery keen\u201d for the athlete to compete and made multiple and repeated attempts to reach a compromise with Heraskevych.<\/p>

\u201cThe IOC was very keen for Mr Heraskevych to compete. This is why the IOC sat down with him to look for the most respectful way to address his desire to remember his fellow athletes who have lost their lives following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine,\u201d the IOC said in their statement on Thursday morning.<\/p>

\u201cThe essence of this case is not about the message,\u201d said the IOC. \u201cIt is about where he wanted to express it.\u201d<\/p>

Olympic organizers said Heraskevych was able to display his helmet in all training runs and that they offered him the option of \u201cdisplaying it immediately after the competition when going through the mixed zone.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt's not about the messaging, it's literally about the rules and the regulations,\u201d said IOC President Kirsty Coventry. \u201cIn this case, the field of play, we have to be able to keep a safe environment for everyone, and sadly that means no messaging is allowed.\u201d<\/p>

The IOC said that it informed Heraskevych on Tuesday that his helmet was \u201cnot compliant with the Olympic Charter \u2026 in particular the IOC\u2019s Guidelines on Athlete Expression.\u201d<\/p>

The alternative the IOC offered was to allow him to wear a black armband or black ribbon as an alternative solution to the use of the helmet, but Heraskevych refused.<\/p>

\u201cI believe we didn't violate any rules,\u201d Heraskevych said. \"I see big inconsistencies in decisions, in the wording, in the press conferences of the IOC, and I believe it's the biggest problem that it's inconsistent.\u201d<\/p>

Heraskevych went further and said that this incident \u201clooks like discrimination because athletes were already expressing themselves.\u201d<\/p>

\"[A] U.S. figure skater, Canadian freeskier [and] Israeli skeleton athlete who is also here today, they didn't face the same things,\u201d Heraskevych claimed. \u201cSo suddenly just a Ukrainian athlete in this Olympic Games will be disqualified for this helmet which is not violating any rules.\"<\/p>

Ukraine\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs Amdrii Sybiha issued a statement on Thursday saying that \u201cfuture generations will recall this as a moment of shame.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHe simply wanted to commemorate fellow athletes killed in war,\u201d Sybiha said. \u201cThere is nothing wrong with that under any rules or ethics. The IOC intimidated, disrespected, and even lectured our athlete and other Ukrainians on how they should keep quiet about \u2018one of 130 conflicts in the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>

The final decision was made Thursday morning, according to the IOC, when Heraskevych met with Coventry who subsequently explained to him \u201cone final time, the IOC position.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAs in the personal meetings before, he refused to change his position,\u201d the IOC said.<\/p>

Heraskevych, meanwhile, said that his fight for justice is not over even if he won\u2019t be competing in the Milano Cortina Olympic Games.<\/p>

\"I believe we need to continue to fight for our rights,\u201d Heraskevych said. \u201cI told you from day one that I do not agree with what the IOC says to us, so probably we will prepare a CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) case and we will defend our rights in CAS.\u201d<\/p>

Copyright \u00a9 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych, with his helmet, which features pictures of people killed in the war with Russia. Heraskevych was ruled out of the Men’s Skeleton event by the International Olympic Committee just over an hour before competition began, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/02\/20f77ba428e513e7b76f22644a882606.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[286],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-hold"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-05 23:40:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/02\/20f77ba428e513e7b76f22644a882606.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1484704"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1484739,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484704\/revisions\/1484739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1484704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1484704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1484704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}