Vladyslav

The decision to ban Heraskevych has drawn shock and condemnation from many former and current Olympic athletes.

Lizzy Yarnold, Team GB’s two-time Olympic skeleton gold medallist, told BBC Sport: “I think it is actually quite shocking. Within the sliding community there is shock and confusion.

“This [wearing the helmet] was a reaction to something which was an act of memorial and incredibly emotionally important to him.

“I think the IOC owe him an apology and this was the wrong decision.”

Two-time Olympic bobsledder John Jackson was equally unimpressed with the IOC.

Jackson, who also served as a Royal Marines commando, told the BBC: “His approach to that is about remembering those who have fallen.

“For me, being military and now a veteran, remembrance is really important to all veterans. We have all lost friends and colleagues in conflict, and we all know someone who isn’t here and paid the ultimate sacrifice.

“I support him in what he was trying to achieve. It is really important to remember those who have given their life for something that ultimately doesn’t need to happen.”

Heraskevych meanwhile told the BBC that being banned only left him feeling “emptiness.”

“Yesterday and before yesterday I was training good. I could be among the medallists for this event, but suddenly because of some interpretation of the rules that I do not agree with, I am not able to compete,” he said.

“Expression guidelines – what do you consider as expression? Many others here in this arena have helmets with different colours and I believe that is also a kind of expression.

“Some others had national symbols, that is also expression. For some reason, their helmets weren’t checked and they were allowed to compete but I am not.

“I believe they [those who have fallen] deserve to be here because of their sacrifice. I want to honour them and their families.”

Heraskevych’s international team mates showed their support throughout Thursday’s competition in Italy.

Alpine skier Dmytro Shepiuk displayed a note reading “Ukrainian heroes with us” after competing, while luger Olena Smaha also voiced support for Heraskevych wearing a glove reading: “Remembrance is not a violation.”

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky accused the IOC of “playing into the hands of the Russian aggressor” after Heraskevych’s disqualification

“Sport shouldn’t mean amnesia, and the Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors,” he wrote on X, external.

“Unfortunately, the decision of the International Olympic Committee to disqualify Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych says otherwise.”

Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych says he will wear his helmet of remembrance on race days “because these athletes deserve to be on the track” – despite the International Olympic Committee banning him from doing so.

Heraskevych wore the helmet, which features images of athletes killed during Russia’s invasion of his home country, during a training session on Thursday after being told it was not allowed.

The IOC says the helmet breaks the rules laid down in the Olympic Charter and suggests he could instead wear a black armband to pay tribute.

Heraskevych says he does not believe the IOC will impose sanctions on him for continuing to wear it, adding: “I believe we have all the rights to wear this helmet in competition because it is fully compliant with the rules.

“I believe the IOC doesn’t have enough black bands to honour all of the athletes.”

The IOC has not confirmed whether it would disqualify Heraskevych for continuing to wear the helmet, saying it is “not helpful to look at hypotheticals”.

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”.

Mark Adams, a spokesperson for the IOC, said they will contact Heraskevych on Thursday to “reiterate his many opportunities to express his grief”.

The men’s skeleton heats begin on Thursday with the final runs on Friday and Adams says he can show the helmet in mixed zones and on social media but “the field of play is sacrosanct”.

“We really want him to compete, we want all athletes to have their moment,” Adams said.

“[It’s] not helpful to look at hypotheticals. It’s not helpful to speculate now, but there are rules and regulations the athletes want us to enforce. In the end it would be an IOC matter.

“We don’t want to prosecute this issue in public – the way we hope we can deal with this is on a human level. It is in everyone’s interest for him to compete.”

Heraskevych said that many of those pictured on his helmet were athletes, including teenage weightlifter Alina Peregudova, boxer Pavlo Ishchenko and ice hockey player Oleksiy Loginov, and some of them were his friends.

“With this helmet we keep memories about these athletes,” he said.

“Some of them were part of the Olympic movement – they were part of the Olympic family. I believe they deserve to be here.”

The IOC has previously disqualified athletes for displaying political messages.

Afghan breakdancer Manizha Talash, who represented the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2024 Paris Games, was disqualified for displaying a ‘Free Afghan Women’ slogan on her cape during a pre-qualifier dance battle.

Ukranian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych claims the International Olympic Committee has banned his helmet featuring images of people killed in the war in his home country, in a decision that “breaks my heart”.

The 26-year-old wore the helmet during a Winter Olympics training session in Cortina, and had promised before the Games to use the event as a platform to keep attention on the conflict.

The IOC is yet to confirm publicly if it has banned the helmet.

“The IOC has banned the use of my helmet at official training sessions and competitions,” said Heraskevych, who was a Ukraine flagbearer in Friday’s opening ceremony, 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 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, and stated some of them were his friends.

Heraskevych said Toshio Tsurunaga, the IOC representative in charge of communications between athletes, national Olympic committees and the IOC, had been to the athletes’ village to tell him.

“He said it’s because of rule 50,” Heraskevych told Reuters.

Rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter states 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 said it had not received any official request to use the helmet in competition, which starts 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.