Ukraine skeleton racer pays tribute to war victims on helmet

Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych wore a helmet with images of people killed in the war in his home country during a Winter Olympics training session in Cortina.

Heraskevych had promised before the Games to use the event as a platform to keep attention on the conflict.

“Some of them were my friends,” said Heraskevych, who was Ukraine’s flagbearer in the opening ceremony.

He told Reuters that many of those pictured on his helmet were athletes including teenage weightlifter Alina Peregudova, boxer Pavlo Ishchenko and ice hockey player Oleksiy Loginov.

The 26-year-old said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had contacted Ukraine’s Olympic Committee over the helmet.

“It’s still being processed,” said Heraskevych – Ukraine’s first skeleton athlete.

He 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 to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs) in Milan-Cortina.