sports
February 13, 2026
Ukrainian Olympic athlete disqualified for defying helmet ban
Ukrainian Vladislav Geraskevich has been disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics for defying rules on political expression
TL;DR
- Vladislav Geraskevich, a Ukrainian skeleton athlete, was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
- The disqualification occurred because Geraskevich refused to remove politically sensitive imagery from his helmet.
- The helmet displayed images of Ukrainian athletes who died during the conflict with Russia.
- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stated that Geraskevich did not consider any compromise and violated 2021 guidelines restricting political expression.
- Geraskevich accused the IOC of double standards, citing an Israeli athlete allowed to wear a kippah commemorating victims of the 1972 Munich massacre.
- Other Ukrainian athletes, Oleg Gandey and Ekaterina Kotsar, also reported being instructed not to use equipment with political messaging.
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