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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out at the International Olympic Committee over its disqualification of Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych for wearing a helmet honouring compatriots killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“Sport shouldn’t mean amnesia, and the Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors,” the Ukrainian president said in a statement posted across his social media accounts.
“Unfortunately, the decision of the International Olympic Committee to disqualify Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych says otherwise.”
The decision came hours before the Olympian was expected to take part in the skeleton event at the Winter Games in Italy.
It is the latest example of sporting bodies’ unease over political protests. Refugee breakdancer Manizha Talash was disqualified for wearing clothing displaying the words “free Afghan women” during her competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
In a statement, the IOC said that Heraskevych had met earlier on Thursday morning with its president Kirsty Coventry, “who explained to him, one final time, the IOC position” that prohibits displaying any political messaging.
Heraskevych had been able to display his helmet showing photographs of Ukrainian athletes cut down in the war in all training runs, and was offered the option of displaying it immediately after the competition, the IOC said.
Speaking to journalists after Thursday morning’s meeting, Coventry said: “No one — no one, especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging.”
But she added: “It’s not about the messaging; it’s literally about the rules and the regulations. In this case — the field of play — we have to be able to keep a safe environment for everyone.”
In a video statement published on X, Heraskevych said he “never wanted a scandal with the IOC”, which he said had “created it with its interpretation of the rules, which many view as discriminatory”.
He called on the IOC to lift the ban on his “memory helmet” and apologise to him.
News of the ban sparked widespread condemnation in Ukraine, with Heraskevych’s compatriots, including soldiers, declaring their support for him online and calling for the IOC to immediately reverse its decision.
Sergiy Stakhovsky, a member of the Security Service of Ukraine’s Alpha special forces and former professional tennis player who represented his country at the 2012 Summer Olympics, shared a photograph of himself in uniform with a message of support: “Remembrance is not a violation.”
Zelenskyy said 660 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale war.
Some of them are among the photographs that adorned Heraskevych’s helmet, such as Ukrainian pair skater Dmytro Sharpar, killed while serving in the Ukrainian army near Bakhmut, and 14-year-old weightlifter Alina Perehudova, whose life was taken by Russian shelling in Mariupol.