Vladyslav Heraskevych has previously used his platform to protest against the war in Ukraine
Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych alleges that the International Olympic Committee has prohibited him from wearing a helmet adorned with images of individuals killed in the war in his home country, a decision he says “breaks my heart.”
The 26-year-old athlete sported the helmet during a Winter Olympics training session in Cortina, and had previously stated his intention to utilize the event as a platform to maintain attention on the ongoing conflict.
The IOC has yet to issue a public confirmation regarding the alleged ban on the helmet.
“The IOC has banned the use of my helmet at official training sessions and competitions,” Heraskevych, who served as a Ukraine flagbearer during Friday’s opening ceremony, stated on Instagram, external.
“A decision that simply breaks my heart. The feeling that the IOC is betraying those athletes who were part of the Olympic movement, not allowing them to be honoured on the sports arena where these athletes will never be able to step again.
“Despite precedents in modern times and in the past when the IOC allowed such tributes, this time they decided to set special rules just for Ukraine.”
Heraskevych informed Reuters that the images on his helmet depicted numerous athletes, including teenage weightlifter Alina Peregudova, boxer Pavlo Ishchenko, and ice hockey player Oleksiy Loginov, some of whom he considered friends.
Heraskevych stated that Toshio Tsurunaga, the IOC representative responsible for communication between athletes, national Olympic committees, and the IOC, visited the athletes’ village to inform him of the decision.
“He said it’s because of rule 50,” Heraskevych told Reuters.
Rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter stipulates that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas”.
He said earlier on Monday that the IOC had contacted Ukraine’s Olympic Committee over the helmet.
The IOC stated that it had not received any official request to use the helmet in competition, which commences on 12 February.
Meanwhile, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Heraskevych “for reminding the world of the price of our struggle” in a post on X, external.
The post continued: “This truth cannot be inconvenient, inappropriate, or called a ‘political demonstration at a sporting event’. It is a reminder to the entire world of what modern Russia is.”
Heraskevych, Ukraine’s first skeleton athlete, held up a ‘No War in Ukraine’ sign at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, days before Russia’s 2022 invasion of the country.
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.”
Heraskevych had said he intended to respect Olympic rules which prohibit political demonstrations at venues while still raising awareness about the war in Ukraine at the Games.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 athletes from Russia and Belarus were largely banned from international sport, but there has since been a gradual return to competition.
The IOC cleared 13 athletes from Russia, external to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs) in Milan-Cortina.
BBC Sport has approached the IOC for comment.
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