Wladyslaw Heraskewych wants to commemorate killed Ukrainian athletes in the ice channel. The IOC doesn’t like that at first.
On the helmet, which the Ukrainian skeleton rider Vladyslaw Heraskewych On Monday, when he went to train in Cortina d’Ampezzo, portrait photos of athletes who died in Russian attacks could be seen. A representative of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the track saw this and forbade him to wear the helmet. This is what Heraskevych reported. The 27-year-old has now submitted an application to the IOC to be allowed to wear the specially designed head protection for his first competition on Thursday.
Heraskewytsch describes this as a “homage to athletes” who belonged to the Olympic family. The IOC representative, however, read the helmet as a political message and thus a violation of the IOC statutes.
At the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine, Heraskewytsch came into the limelight for the first time, because he held the message “No war in Ukraine” in a cling film in front of his chest in the ice channel. At that time, the IOC let him pass this action as a general wish and a non-political message.
Where exactly does politics begin and how can it be separated from sport? The IOC must answer this question again. In an interview with the SZ Heraskevych had already announced shortly before the start of the Winter Games: “We will not violate the IOC rules – at least in the form in which we understand them. But we will make sure that the world knows about what is happening in Ukraine.” Among other things, he pointed out that over 500 athletes from Ukraine died in the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised on Telegram that Heraskevych reminded the world of the price of the Ukrainian struggle. And he wrote: “This truth cannot be described as uncomfortable, inappropriate or a political act.”
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