Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych trained wearing a helmet brandished with images of compatriots killed during the war in his homeland, delivering on a promise to use the Winter Olympics to keep attention on the conflict.
Visible on the helmet are teenage weightlifter Alina Perehudova, boxer Pavlo Ischenko, ice hockey player Oleksiy Loginov, actor and athlete Ivan Kononenko, diving athlete and coach Mykyta Kozubenko, shooter Oleksiy Habarov and dancer Daria Kurdel.
“Some of them were my friends,” Heraskevych, who is his country’s flag bearer, told Reuters of the portraits after his training session at the Cortina sliding centre.
The 26-year-old said the International Olympic Committee had contacted Ukraine‘s Olympic Committee over his helmet.
“It’s still being processed,” he said.
Heraskevych, who held up a “No War in Ukraine” sign at the Beijing Olympics days before Russia’s 2022 invasion, had said he intended to respect Olympic rules prohibiting political demonstrations at venues while still ensuring Ukraine’s plight remained visible during the Games.
Rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter states: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
Neither the IOC nor the Ukrainian committee had any immediate comment on Heraskevych’s case.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus were largely barred from international sport, but the IOC has since backed their gradual return under strict conditions.
Moscow and Minsk say sport should remain separate from international conflicts.
There have been a number of incidents over the years where athletes protested on the field of play or on the medals podium.
The most famous case dates back to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City when US sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised black-gloved fists during the 200 metres medal ceremony to protest racial injustice in their country.
That led to their expulsion from the Games, although Smith kept his gold medal and Carlos his bronze.
More recently, at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Afghan breakdancer Manizha Talash, a member of the refugee Olympic team, was disqualified after wearing a cape with the slogan “Free Afghan Women” during a pre-qualifying competition.
However, there have also been cases where athletes and teams escaped punishment when their action was not deemed political.
Australia’s women’s footnall team unfurled a flag of the first peoples of Australia at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but, while not one of the recognised flags of participating nations at the Games, the team were not sanctioned.
Two Chinese cycling medallists who wore badges featuring the head of their country’s former leader Mao Zedong on the Tokyo Olympics podium escaped with a warning.
