“There are not enough black armbands to honor the memory of all the athletes who have fallen in the Ukrainian war.” With that phrase, the Ukrainian flag bearer and skeleton pilot Vladislav Heraskevych rejected the alternative proposed to him by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after vetoing his commemorative helmet. The athlete was excluded this Thursday from the Winter Olympic Games for refusing to compete without the so-called "helmet of memory", which carries images of Ukrainian athletes who have died since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

First modification: 02/12/2026 - 02:11

Alina Perehudova was a 14-year-old weightlifter who died during the siege of Mariupol. Pavlo Ischenko won European and world boxing titles before falling in combat in 2025. Oleksiy Loginov was an ice hockey goalie who lost his life fighting for Ukraine in Luhansk in 2023.

They are three of the athletes who died during the war in Ukraine whose faces appear on the helmet of this country's flag bearer at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games, skeleton competitor Vladislav Heraskevych.

Some of them were friends of Heraskevych, but remembering them on the Olympic stage will almost certainly be the cause of his disqualification as soon as he makes his debut on February 12.

The so-called “helmet of memory” has earned a separate chapter in the Olympic action. Created by the Ukrainian artist Iryna Prots, a personal friend of Heraskevych, it is a testimony of gratitude, but also a political message, more powerful than the “No to war in Ukraine” banner that she showed four years ago at Beijing 2022, when the conflict had just begun.

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The International Olympic Committee has prohibited him from wearing the dark helmet adorned with 24 athletes' faces, explaining that this violates rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter, which enshrines the neutrality of the Games and establishes that "any type of political, religious or racial protest or propaganda" will not be allowed in competition settings.

"There are 130 conflicts in the world. We cannot allow 130 different conflicts to be shown, no matter how terrible, on the field of play, during the actual competition," explained IOC spokesman Mark Adams, announcing the veto of Heraskevych's helmet.

This Thursday, finally, the Ukrainian skeleton pilot Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Winter Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which stated that the athlete did not respect its "guidelines on athlete expression."

In a statement, the International Olympic Committee indicated that Heraskevych was removed from the Milan-Cortina Games "after refusing to comply with IOC guidelines on athlete expression."

Therefore, Vladyslav Heraskevych will not be able to start his test this morning at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, as indicated in the statement.

A famous precedent

Rule 50.2 led to the expulsion from the Olympic Village and subsequent suspension of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, winners of gold and bronze, respectively, in the 200 m in Mexico 68.

It was following his famous demonstration with raised fists and black gloves on the podium, to make visible the situation of the African-American population in his native United States.

Heraskevych assured that he was not afraid of suffering the same fate. On February 11, he announced that he would defy the ban and pay tribute to 24 of the more than 500 athletes he claims have died as a result of the Russian invasion.

"Thanks to your sacrifice, we can compete here as a team. I will not betray you," Heraskevych promised in statements to the media. "I think they deserve to be with me on race day. I wore it yesterday, today (in training), I'll wear it tomorrow and I'll wear it on race day."

Heraskevych had the best time in the first training race on February 11 using the helmet, which, he assured, was already approved for competition. "To be honest, I was hoping we'd find some common sense," he said. "I have registered this helmet, technically it is fine."

Her compatriot Olena Smaha, a luge or bobsled athlete, showed her support for Heraskevych, wearing a glove with the phrase “remembrance is not rape” written in English during her competition.

Heraskevych's coach, the Latvian Ivo Steinberg, also supports the athlete's decision. “If the disqualification comes, we will see what we can do,” he commented.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has expressed solidarity with Heraskevych. "More than 650 Ukrainian athletes will never be on an Olympic stage. They were murdered by Russians," he said in a post on X. "Faced with this reality, the decision to ban our athlete's helmet is deeply wrong."

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The Ukrainian Olympic Committee said on February 10 that it had submitted a request to the IOC to allow the athlete to wear the helmet, arguing that it does not contain advertising, political slogans or discriminatory elements.

The IOC has acknowledged that it has “begged” Heraskevych to accept the options to compete in compliance with the Olympic Charter.

"We tried to approach his desire with compassion," Mark Adams said on February 10 at the press conference announcing the decision to ban the helmet. "The IOC fully understands the athletes' desire to remember their friends who lost their lives in that conflict."

But Heraskevych has rejected the alternatives that the Olympic body has presented to him and has said that "the IOC does not have enough black armbands to remember all the athletes who died in this war."

The IOC itself has maintained a strict policy of prohibiting the national representation of Russian athletes, as part of the sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine, which occurred in the middle of the Olympic truce in Beijing 2022.

Helmets: showcases of pride and creativity

The design of helmets has become a riot of inventiveness and an opportunity to exalt national symbols or the individual motifs of athletes.

Logan Thompson, goaltender for the Canadian ice hockey team, decorated his with “something more themed about Calgary-Alberta, where I'm from and how much I love that city”: a moose and a flag from his country.

Another goalkeeper from the same team, Darcy Kuemper, chose for one side of his helmet the image of a grebe, a bird native to Alaska and some parts of Canada, and for the other a grain silo and an ear of wheat.

There are more personal reasons, such as the number 23 that Finnish goalkeeper Anni Keisala had stamped next to the image of a forest, to honor her friend and teammate in Beijing 2022 Sanni Hakala, who was paralyzed after an accident in 2023.

American goalkeeper Gwyneth Philips used a common symbol, the eagle that symbolizes her country, but also added a brick wall, to celebrate a typical product of her native Ohio, the so-called “Athens blocks.”

Prots, the artist who designed Heraskevych's helmet, spoke to Reuters and defended her friend's chosen motif, as well as his decision to honor the fallen: "Every pair of eyes... could be looking at this world right now, could be fighting for their own medals, could be on their own pedestals."

With Reuters and AP

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