Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych returns to training with a banned helmet, despite IOC ruling

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Skeletal Ukrainian athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych returned to training Wednesday with his banned helmet, a day before the start of his race at the Cortina Games in Milan and with the International Olympic Committee urging him to express his views differently.

Heraskevych arrived at the Olympics wearing a custom helmet that featured the faces of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches who died during their country’s war with Russia, a conflict that began shortly after the 2022 Beijing Games ended.

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But the IOC said late Monday that the helmet would not be allowed in competition, citing a rule that prohibits making political statements on the Olympic playing field. Heraskevych wore the helmet to train on Tuesday and Wednesday anyway, knowing that the IOC could ultimately exclude him from the Olympic race.

The IOC planned to speak with Heraskevych again on Wednesday to discuss what would be allowed, spokesman Mark Adams said. Adams said those words about an hour before Heraskevych’s first practice of the day, so it was not immediately clear when or if that conversation would occur.

“We will reiterate the many, many opportunities you have to express your grief,” Adams said. “As we mentioned before, he can do it on social media and in press conferences in the mixed zone. So we will try to talk to him about that and try to convince him.

“We want him to compete. We really want him to have his moment. That’s very, very important. We want every athlete to have his moment and that’s the point. We want all of our athletes to have a fair and level playing field.”

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The IOC has offered Heraskevych the opportunity to wear a black armband in competition as a sign of his grief and mourning for his compatriots, although such tributes are normally not permitted. Adams said that represents a compromise; Heraskevych said he is not interested.

“I think the way we hope to be able to deal with this is on a human level… We’ll have conversations with him to try to explain to him that it’s actually in everyone’s interest for him to compete and for him to be able to say whatever he wants to say, too,” Adams said. “So I’m not saying we have a solution, a ready-made solution, for this. But I think it’s better here for people to talk to people and for human interaction to hopefully win out.”

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics