Wie Bilder toter Ukrainer eine Kontroverse um die Olympischen Winterspiele auslösten

A Ukrainian skeleton rider has been banned from the Winter Olympics over a helmet that broke rules on political expression.

Vladylsav Heraskevych woke up on Thursday morning expecting to fly down the Cortina skeleton track at up to 80 miles an hour.

But the 27-year-old was stopped when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) withdrew his accreditation over his banned skeleton helmet.

# What is on the helmet?

Heraskevych’s custom skeleton helmet features the faces of 24 Ukrainian athletes who have lost their lives in the course of Russia’s invasion of the country, including figure skater Dmytro Sharpar, biathlete Yevhen Malyshev, boxer Pavlo Ishchenko, weightlifter Alina Peregudova and ice hockey player Oleksiy Loginov.

The youngest, an aspiring judoka named Ivashko Viktoria, was just nine years old, killed in a 2022 air strike.

# Why was he wearing it?

Four years ago at Beijing 2022, Heraskevych held up a sign that said “No war in Ukraine” after competing in the skeleton, when Vladimir Putin’s troops were preparing to invade the country.

This time around, Heraskevych was Ukraine’s flagbearer at the opening ceremony. He has repeatedly insisted that he was not making a political statement by wearing the helmet, calling it a “helmet of remembrance” during a sustained social media campaign to get the IOC to back down.

“I believe that black ribbons are simply not enough to honor all the Ukrainian athletes who were killed by Russia,” Heraskevych said this week.

“The ‘memory helmet’ does not violate any rules and, in my opinion, does not contradict the provisions of the Olympic Charter. This is not a political action – it is a tribute to the fallen athletes, and we have the right to talk about it.”

He was supported his own national Olympic committee, who said they are “united and invincible” and his team-mate, luger Olena Smaha, wrote on her glove for a training run “remembrance is not a violation”, flashing it to the camera at the end.

# What rule does it break?

Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter, to which all teams and athletes sign up for the duration of the Games, governs “freedom of expression in keeping with the Olympic values” and within the guidelines set by the executive committee.

But Heraskevych, who was offered the opportunity to display his helmet during post-race interviews in the mixed zone and on social media, says these rules have been applied inconsistently: Juliette Pelchat for example, a Canadian snowboarder, had a symbol on her board to commemorate the death of Jeff Keenan, another professional who lost his life in an avalanche last year.

# How has he been punished?

Kirsty Coventry, the newly elected IOC president, had a lengthy meeting with Heraskevych and his father and coach Mykhalio, to try and resolve the dispute on Thursday morning.

Coventry was part of the IOC body that put the express guidelines together in 2020, before she became president, and says that athletes “asked us to keep certain areas – so the field of play, the podium and the Olympic Village – safe ones” when it comes to political messaging.