Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych holds his crash helmet as he stands outdoors the sliding heart on the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday.
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Alessandra Tarantino/AP
KYIV — Ukrainians are uniting in help and solidarity with their skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych after he was banned Thursday from the Milan Cortina Video games. He insisted on carrying a helmet with photographs of Ukrainian athletes killed throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and was disqualified for refusing the Worldwide Olympic Committee’s request that he substitute it.
“This is price of our dignity,” Heraskevych wrote on Instagram after studying he had been disqualified.
Ukrainians supported him by posting images on social media with the caption “Remembrance is not a violation,” referring to the IOC choice that portraits of these killed in warfare constituted a political assertion that’s prohibited on the Olympics.
Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych begins for a males’s skeleton coaching session on the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday.
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Aijaz Rahi/AP
Amongst these displaying solidarity with the athlete have been quite a lot of Ukrainian troopers, taking help images on the entrance line.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the athlete, writing that his helmet is “a reminder to the whole world of what Russian aggression is and what the price of the fight for independence is.”
Later Zelenskyy awarded the skeleton racer the Order of Liberty, saying it was “For selfless service to the Ukrainian people, civic courage and patriotism in upholding the ideals of freedom and democratic values.”
Ukraine is about to enter its fifth yr of the full-scale warfare and is experiencing its hardest winter with frigid climate and fixed Russian assaults on the nation’s vitality amenities.
The evening earlier than Heraskevych was disqualified, Russia launched one other large assault on the facility grid.
The European Union Ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, stated she was indignant and disillusioned when she discovered concerning the Ukrainian athlete being excluded.
“This year’s Olympics certainly did not stop Russia. It attacks Ukraine every day. Again this night they damaged another thermal power plant. In Kyiv, another 2,600 residential buildings were left without heating — making it 3,700 high rises without heat. At least six people were injured, including a four-year-old child in Dnipro,” Mathernova wrote on Fb.
Some 660 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed because the starting of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, in keeping with Zelenskyy.
“UKR heroes with us”
Ukrainian fencer and two-time Olympic champion Olga Kharlan wrote on Fb that Heraskevych’s place is about dignity, reminiscence and respect for these “who will never be able to compete again.” Kharlan herself skilled disqualification — in 2023 she was banned from the World Championships for refusing to shake the hand of Anna Smirnova, a Russian athlete who was competing underneath a impartial flag. Her disqualification was later canceled.
One other Ukrainian Olympic champion, boxer Wladimir Klitschko posted Heraskevych’s photograph on Instagram, writing, “When I think of my Olympic medal today, I don’t feel pride anymore. I feel shame. For the IOC, the show must go on. I’m here to say what they don’t want to hear: the killing must stop.”
Ukraine’s Dmytro Shepiuk holds a sticker studying “UKR heroes with us” on the end space throughout a males’s super-G race, on the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Wednesday.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
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Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
Different Ukrainian athletes presently competing on the Winter Video games additionally confirmed help. The nation’s luge crew knelt and raised their helmets after competing. And skier Dmytro Shepiuk held up a yellow notice on his glove saying “UKR heroes with us.”
Heraskevych can keep however cannot race
IOC President Kirsty Coventry stated the Ukrainian skeleton racer can proceed to be on the Milan Cortina Video games regardless of not with the ability to compete. Heraskevych filed an attraction to the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport over his disqualification.
In the meantime Ukrainians on social media are calling on Ukraine’s sport officers to rent one of the best legal professionals to problem the Olympic committee’s choice.
For a lot of of Heraskevych’s supporters that is now a matter of justice — Ukrainians already name him a nationwide hero and say that for them, he has gained, even with out competing in a race.
