Skeletonist Heraskevych disqualified from first race at Olympics due to “memory helmet”

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified by the jury from the first skeleton event at the 2026 Olympic Games.

The athlete reported this to Suspilne Sport.

Heraskevych planned to start the first race wearing a “memory helmet” depicting Ukrainian athletes who died as a result of Russian aggression. The jury decided that this violated Rule 50 of the IOC statutes, which prohibits political, racial, or religious propaganda.

At a press conference on February 10, Heraskevych stated that he would continue to skate in this helmet — both in training and in competitions.

Before the race, the athlete posted a video on social media with a proposal to the International Olympic Committee to "end the scandal". The athlete called the IOCʼs interpretation of the rules discriminatory and asked:

• lift the ban on wearing a "memory helmet";
• apologize for putting pressure on him;
• as a sign of solidarity with Ukrainian sports, to donate generators for Ukrainian sports facilities.

The night before, Heraskevych pointed to another example of the IOCʼs double standards. At the opening of the Games, Israeli skeleton athlete Jared Fireston wore a kippah with the names of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches who died in the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

• In addition to Heraskevych, IOC has banned two other Ukrainian athletes from competing in their own helmets at this yearʼs Olympic Games. Freestyle skier Kateryna Kotsar was unable to compete in a helmet with the inscription "Be brave like Ukrainian," and short track skier Oleh Handei was unable to compete in a helmet with the quote from Ukrainian writer Lina Kostenko, "Where heroism take place, there is no final defeat."
• This is not the first time that Vladyslav Heraskevych has made his stance known at the Olympics. In February 2022, two weeks before the full-scale invasion, he held a silent protest with a “No War in Ukraine” sign at the Beijing Games. IOC then spoke to the athlete and his team, telling them that “the field is not the place for statements”.

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