‘It looks like this train has left’

Even before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) handed down its ruling on Friday, disqualified Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladislav Heraskevych appeared to concede defeat.

“It looks like this train has left,” the 27-year-old, draped in the Ukrainian flag, told reporters after emerging from a two-and-a-half-hour hearing in Milan.

“I cannot do another race so it is done.”

He said he had no plans to return to the sliding venue during these Winter Olympic Games but still felt he had done the right thing by trying to compete with a helmet adorned with portraits of Ukrainian athletes killed in Russia’s war on their country.

At the same time though, Heraskevych appeared upbeat.

‘I hope truth will prevail’

“I’m really thankful for the opportunity to speak and we were treated equally at the hearing room and arguments were heard.

“We are waiting for the decisions, but as you see I look pretty happy so I’m pretty positive about how it went. I hope truth will prevail and still I know that I was innocent.”

The appeal was heard on Friday morning by an ad hoc division of the Swiss-based court, which had been set up in a Milan hotel to deal with Olympic appeals quickly.

A statement issued by CAS prior to the hearing said that the skeleton racer was arguing that his disqualification was “disproportionate, unsupported by any technical or safety violation and causes irreparable sporting harm to him.”

Olympic Charter Rule 50

Heraskevych was prevented from competing in the men’s skeleton, which began on Thursday, due to a ruling by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the helmet he had intended to wear violated Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter. It states that: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”

The medals in men’s skeleton were to be awarded later on Friday.

The helmet in question bears the portraits of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes who have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago.

He had worn the helmet in his five training runs – each time placing among the top six.

The IOC interpreted the depictions of the killed Ukrainian athletes as a political statement, something that the skeleton racer disputes.

“I am convinced that we are not breaking any rules. I also believe that we have had and continue to have this attention all these days because people understand that we are on the right side and have not broken any rules,” he said.

Solidarity from Ukrainian lugers, President Zelenskyy

The Ukrainian luge relay team expressed solidarity with Heraskevych during their competition on Thursday. In the finish area, the six athletes knelt together, held up their helmets, and shouted: “Vlad, we are with you, Ukraine, we stand with you.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that he will award Heraskevych a medal of merit.

On the X platform, he sharply criticized the IOC, writing that “Sport shouldn’t mean amnesia, ​and ‌the Olympic movement should help stop wars, ‌not play into the ‌hands ​of aggressors.”

A group of around 40 members of the European Parliament have also sent an open letter to the IOC, calling on it to reconsider its decision.

IOC ‘open to everything’

Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry, who had personally delivered the news of Heraskevych’s ban to the athlete on Thursday, said there were no immediate plans to review the rules governing political expression.

“I have had a number of conversations with ‌athletes ​over the last couple of days. They still feel strongly that we should be able to keep part of our Olympic movement, and their Olympic experience, safe,” Coventry ‌told a Friday press conference.

“If our athletes ​would like us to look at it (the rules), we are open to everything. But the rules are the rules as of today, and I believe they are good rules.

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