By Dana O’Neil, CNN
Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy (CNN) — The Ukrainian flag wrapped around her shoulders and its colors painted on her left cheek, Olha Scherhyna stood near the top of the Cortina Curling Center and pointed her phone at the big board announcing the start list for the men’s skeleton.
Minutes earlier, the International Olympic Committee had announced that Ukrainian slider Vladyslav Heraskevych had been disqualified from the men’s skeleton for insisting that he would wear a helmet on which he depicted athletes who had been killed in the war with Russia. As the starters scrolled in front of Scherhyna on the board, a red DNS stood next to Heraskevych at the same time an announcer said he would not start.
Using a translate app on her phone to share her opinions, Scherhyna needed no help to convey her emotions. She brought her fists to her eyes, to indicate sobbing, before real tears fell down her cheeks. She then reached into the pocket of her white jacket and pulled out a black armband, motioning to me to tie it around her jacket.
On her app she wrote, “For Ukraine, he is already a winner.’’
The IOC and Heraskevych have been in a standoff since Tuesday, when, during a training run, the slider wore his helmet honoring those slain since Russia invaded Ukraine. The organization said it violated its guidelines on athlete expression. Rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter, which provides for the “protection of neutrality,” states that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.’’ He has appealed the decision.
Heraskevych countered that his helmet was no different than the photograph that American figure skater Maxim Naumov showed of his parents killed in a plane crash, and was merely a way to memorialize his peers. The IOC dug in, suggesting instead that Heraskevych wear a black armband; the slider stood his ground, telling CNN, “I believe IOC doesn’t have enough black bands to memorialize all the athletes who was killed in the war.’’
The IOC hoped for a compromise, saying it would reach out to Heraskevych before official competition began but the Ukrainian, who served as his country’s flag bearer at the Opening Ceremonies here, made clear he wasn’t budging. An hour before the skeleton heats were to begin, he wrote on X, “I never wanted a scandal with the IOC, and I did not create it.” He went on to add that he requested that the organization “lift the ban on the use of the ‘Memory Helmet.’”
IOC president Kristy Coventry traveled to Cortina on Thursday moning for the explicit purpose of meeting with Heraskevych and his father, Mykhailo. She said she empathized and respected Heraskevych’s desire to memorialize his peers.
“No one, no one – especially me – is disagreeing with the messaging,’’ she said. “The messaging is a powerful message of remembrance, it’s a message of memory and no one is disagreeing with that. … We’re not making a judgement on whether the messaging is political or not political.”
Instead, she said, the decision is a direct outcome of the Athletes Commission recommendations in 2021 that limited athletes’ opportunities to express their views “on the field of play prior to the start of competition.’’
“It’s because we had so many athletes come up to us and say, ‘If you open that up, how do you keep me safe?’” Coventry said. “How do you stop me from being used by others to send a message that I don’t agree with?’ That’s why these rules are in place. It’s to ensure the safety of everybody.’’
The decision, perhaps com