The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced its decision Friday evening after an ad hoc division of the Swiss-based court heard Vladyslav Heraskevych’s appeal earlier in the day.
“The CAS ad hoc division has denied an application by skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych (Ukraine) against the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC),” the court said. It added that, while it was “fully sympathetic to Mr Heraskevych’s commemoration,” it was “bound by rules in the IOC Athlete Expression Guidelines” and considered those guidelines to strike “a reasonable balance between athletes’ interests to express their views, and athletes’ interests to receive undivided attention for their sporting performance on the field of play.”
Heraskevych, disqualified from competing, appeared to accept the likely outcome before the CAS ruling. The 27-year-old, draped in the Ukrainian flag, told reporters after a two-and-a-half-hour hearing in Milan: “It looks like this train has left. I cannot do another race so it is done.” He said he did not plan to return to the sliding venue during these Winter Olympic Games but felt he had done the right thing by attempting to race with a helmet bearing portraits of Ukrainian athletes killed since Russia launched its full‑scale invasion four years ago.
“I’m really thankful for the opportunity to speak and we were treated equally at the hearing room and arguments were heard,” Heraskevych said. “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 IOC ruled the helmet violated Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which prohibits “any kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” at Olympic sites, venues or other areas. The helmet shows the faces of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes who have died since the invasion. Heraskevych had worn the helmet in five training runs, each time finishing among the top six, and he disputes the IOC’s view that the images constituted a political statement. “I am convinced that we are not breaking any rules,” he said, adding that public attention reflected support for his stance.
Ukrainian athletes showed solidarity. The Ukrainian mixed relay luge team knelt together at the finish area, raised their helmets and shouted, “Vlad, we are with you, Ukraine, we stand with you.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would award Heraskevych a medal of merit and criticized the IOC on social media, saying “sport shouldn’t mean amnesia, and the Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors.” Around 40 members of the European Parliament also sent an open letter urging the IOC to reconsider.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who personally informed Heraskevych of the ban, said there were no immediate plans to revise rules on 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,” she said at 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.”
Edited by: Jonathan Harding
