Despite being disqualified from the Winter Olympics, Ukrainian skeletonist Vladyslav Heraskevych scored a moral victory by challenging the IOC, offering a hopeful counter to growing 'Ukraine fatigue', argues political analyst Mykola Riabchuk.
Ukraine's Vladyslav Heraskevych takes part in the skeleton men's training session at Cortina Sliding Centre during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Photo: Tiziana Fabi / ANP / AFP
On February 12, at 10.30 CET, Ukrainian skeletonist Vladyslav Heraskevych had to take on the track in Cortina Sliding Centre, holding a strong chance to win an Olympic medal. Shortly before the start, he was approached by the President of the International Olympic Committee, who informed him that he was disqualified because his helmet ‘was not in compliance with the rules’.
The ‘inappropriate’ helmet contained no text, only the small portraits of 22 Ukrainian athletes killed by the Russians over the past few years. In fact, many more Ukrainian athletes have perished under the Russian assault: the website Champion.ua lists more than 800 names, including several adolescents starting from age 9. Heraskevych’s position and ultimate goal was clear: to pay tribute to his fellow sportsmen who would never be able to take part in any events, and to remind the cheerful public about the genocidal war waged by Russia not far from the serene valleys of Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Victory in defeat
While the first message was quite acceptable to the IOC – they even generously offered the Ukrainian athlete to wear a black ribbon instead of the controversial portraits on the helmet – the second message was deemed inappropriate, allegedly falling under the paragraph 50(2) of the Olympic rules: ‘No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas' [emphasis added, MR]. The IOC did not properly clarify why the sheer commemoration of the deceased colleagues – without any explicit explanation of who they were and what had happened to them – was treated as ‘political propaganda’. This murky decision stirred indignation among Heraskevych’s supporters and reinvigorated existing widespread doubts on the body’s impartiality.
Even though his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was unsuccessful, Heraskevych clearly won the battle, at least in moral terms. ‘Today we paid the price for our dignity’, he commented bitterly on the IOC decision. ‘I believe that I did not break any rules. I defended the interests of Ukraine, and not so much the country as the memory of these athletes. They deserve it, but unfortunately, the IOC thinks otherwise.’
The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine expressed full support for the sportsman’s brave decision: ‘Today, Vladislav did not start, but he was not alone — all of Ukraine was, is, and will be with him. Because when an athlete stands up for truth, honor, and memory, that is already a victory.’ Dozens of Vladyslav’s colleagues, both Ukrainian and international, as well as many celebrities and politicians joined their voices in the expression of solidarity with his gesture.
‘Today, Vladislav did not start, but he was not alone — all of Ukraine was, is, and will be with him. Because when an athlete stands up for truth, honor, and memory, that is already a victory.’
President Volodymyr Zelensky was probably the most outspoken: he not only praised the athlete 'for his clear position', for reminding 'the whole world of what Russian aggression is and what the price of fighting for independence is', but also lashed out at the IOC for their alleged betrayal of the principles of Olympism and for playing into the hands of the aggressor. ‘It is Russia that constantly violates Olympic principles and uses the time of the Olympics for war. In 2008, it was the war against Georgia; in 2014, it was the occupation of Crimea; in 2022, it was the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And now, in 2026, despite numerous calls for a ceasefire during the Winter Olympics, Russia shows complete disregard and increases its missile and drone strikes on our energy infrastructure and our people… But at the same time, 13 Russians are now in Italy participating in the Olympics. They are competing in the Olympic Games under “neutral” flags, but in real life they publicly support Russian aggression against Ukraine and the occupation of our territories. They are the ones who deserve to be disqualified.’
On the same day, Zelensky decreed Vladyslav Heraskevych be endowed with the Order of Freedom ‘for his dedicated service to the Ukrainian people, civic courage, and patriotism in defending the ideals of freedom and democratic values.’
Manipulation and subterfuge
It appears that the IOC shot its own leg and substantially amplified Heraskevych’s message, which would otherwise have remained largely unnoticed. One may wonder why the IOC reacted so nervously to a minor infringement (if it is even an infringement at all).
The first explanation that may come to mind invokes Russian money and influence. The record of Moscow’s pernicious activity in international bodies is vast, starting from multiple cases of bribery and blackmail to more elaborate schemes of subterfuge and manipulation. One of them, the most reckless and scandalous, even cost Russians suspension from the 2016-2018 Olympic games, after independent investigators revealed a massive, state-sponsored doping conspiracy.
Corruption, however, is not the only possible explanation of the IOC’s benevolent attitude toward various rogue (but sufficiently rich) regimes – a feature discernable not only in the IOC’s moves but also in the twisted policies of many other organizations. Vladyslav Heraskevych briefly touched upon the problem when protesting the IOC’s double standards: severe punishment for his alleged violation on the one hand, and benign neglect of Russian flags at sporting events or even on the helmet of Italian snowboarder Roland Fischnaller, on the other hand.
It seems that the pronounced positions of Vladyslav Heraskevych and his many colleagues vis-à-vis the Russian genocidal war in Ukraine potentially undermine the efforts of the IOC and many other organizations to turn a blind eye on the criminal nature of Putin’s regime, to normalize evil, and to return to ‘business as usual’ with a rogue state which slaughters Ukrainian civilians every day.
It seems that Vladyslav Heraskevych undermines the efforts of the IOC and many other organizations to return to ‘business as usual’ with Russia
The IOC’s rapprochement with Russia, notably, unfolds despite a lack of any retreat or remorse on the Russian side. On the contrary, Moscow persistently escalates its attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and inhabitants, and Kremlin officials and propagandists do not hide their genocidal intent – they aim to eradicate Ukraine as both a state and a nation. In this fascistoid state, the overwhelming majority of the population supports the regime and its war, and Russian athletes are no exception: all of them either actively support Putin’s war effort or, at least, tacitly allow the regime to use their names, their fame and achievements in warmongering propaganda and chauvinistic mobilization.
Russians are back
Nonetheless, the IOC loosens the screws instead of tightening them. At the end of 2023, the IOC allowed Russian athletes to return to individual competitions, provided they would participate under a neutral flag. Ukrainians adamantly condemned this ‘shameful decision, which undermines Olympic principles’, and ‘essentially gives Russia the green light to weaponize the Olympics, because the Kremlin will use every Russian athlete as a weapon in its propaganda warfare’. In an official statement, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned international partners that Russian athletes ‘often represent sports organizations associated with the armed forces. Some of them are on active duty in the Russian military, and some of them wear symbols of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine on their sport uniforms. [They] not only sympathize with the murders of Ukrainian women and children, but are likely to be directly involved in these terrible crimes… Moscow will not be raising white neutral flags at the competitions, as the IOC suggests, but will be demonstrating the triumph of its ability to avoid responsibility for the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II'.
The IOC predictably ignored the warnings as ‘too emotional’. This spurious ‘neutrality’ paved the way for Russian athletes to the Paris Summer Olympics in 2024 and, subsequently, to Milan 2026. Even more oddly, the sports officials from Russia have never been fully suspended, so their behind-the-scenes influence on international sports organizations remained largely unbroken.
Russian Julia Pleshkova in action under the neutral flag during the Women's Super G at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Photo: Andrea Solero / ANP / EPA
One example is Elena Vyalbe, a former Olympic champion and currently the head of the Russian Ski and Snowboard Federation, who mused recently on Russia’s own sanctions against the West: ‘I think that if we had dropped a serious bomb on central London, it would all be over by now, and we would be allowed everywhere. Russia's struggle with the outside world has been going on for centuries. They have never loved us, even when they pretended to. They are always standing behind us with a knife. I love it when our country is strong, and I guess our strength annoys the whole world.’
In the meantime, the IOC took one more step toward legitimizing (or downplaying) the Russian war in Ukraine via sportswashing. At the end of last year, they allowed Russian juniors to compete under their national flag, i.e. the flag of a rogue state waging a brutal genocidal war against its neighbor. A number of international federations (Chess, Volleyball, Fencing, Equestrian) jumped immediately at this potentially profitable opportunity. Two more federations, of Judo and Sambo, even overplayed their hands (and the IOC’s benevolence), allowing not only juniors but all Russian athletes to compete with their flag and anthem.
Sportswashing the rogues
The standard justification for such decisions is the alleged autonomy or even independence of sports (like culture) from politics. This is not true even in democracies, where civil society is strong and state power has limits. But in autocracies, it is a complete falsehood. Totalitarian states strive to nationalize everything and mobilize it for regime service. This phenomenon is well researched and documented today by both scholars and journalists. They define it as ‘sportswashing’ – cleaning the tainted image of rogue regimes by switching attention from their ugly repression at home and their aggressive activities abroad to their gentle promotion of sport events, support for sports talents, and impressive organizational skills demonstrated in the process.
In autocracies, the alleged autonomy or even independence of sport from politics is a complete falsehood
Garry Kasparov, a renowned Russian dissident and former world chess champion, contends that sportswashing today is a ‘step up’ from how dictators used to buy influence – it has become a way for them, through money, to ‘infiltrate societies in free countries’.
Russia is generally considered alongside four other dictatorships (China, Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia) as a country engaged most actively in sportswashing. But, unlike all these and other autocracies, Russia is also engaged in a brutal war of aggression. And this ‘peculiarity’ makes its sportswashing activity particularly sinister and dangerous. Sports are weaponized in today’s Russia, like everything else – culture, religion, trade, information, history, education – down to preschools. Russian officials boldly demonstrate an instrumental, crudely militaristic approach to sports. They do not play nicely along the IOC’s script of ‘sports beyond politics’ and do not buy the fairy tale about athletes’ alleged ‘neutrality’.
Bogus neutrality
Last year’s celebrations of Alexander Ovechkin, a top hockey player in the North American professional league, who broke the NHL’s all-time goal scoring record, demonstrate graphically that no ‘neutral’ (or even ‘American’, in this case) status can spare the Russian athletes from brazen appropriation of their fame and achievements by Putin’s propagandists. They clearly do not care much about Ovechkin’s (or anybody else’s) alleged 'neutrality', but do care about Russian imperial glory, victory and dominance.
‘Despite the sanctions, despite the discrimination, despite everything, Russians are winning. No one will stop us’, declared one propagandist. ‘In an era when world sports have become an arena for political confrontation, a great Russian hockey player once again proved that a true champion will break through any barriers’, boasted another. ‘Ovechkin has never hidden or been embarrassed by his passport, remains a member of the Putin team, and, at the same time, one of the main faces of world hockey, a favorite of millions, and the best scorer in the NHL.’
Billboard by Russian betting company Fonbet reading 'Ovechkin is always first!' in Moscow, April 2025. Photo: Sergei Ilnitsky / ANP / EPA
Indeed, Ovechkin has never criticized Putin’s ‘team’, nor has he ever voiced opposition to the political (mis)use of his fame, but he also hasn't praised Putin, at least since the Anschluss of Crimea, so technically he could be considered ‘neutral’. The case, however, exemplifies how tricky the notion of ‘neutrality’ is, and how easily it can be ignored by malevolent interpreters – unless, of course, the athlete makes a clear statement on the issue.
So far, ‘neutrality’ seems to be a fig leaf that allows the IOC and numerous sports federations to greenlight very dubious personages from Russia, who are implicated in pro-war propaganda. The fact that quite a few Russian athletes are members of the Russian military or members of military sports clubs does not preclude their participation in the international events under the ‘neutral’ flag. According to Ukrainian journalists, 45 out of 71 medals Russia received at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics were won by athletes who are members of the Central Sports Club of the Russian Army; two years later, at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, they won 14 out of 32 medals under an ostensibly ‘neutral’ flag.
Uphill battle
The general tendency appears rather clear: both the IOC and most of the international sports federations would like to ease and ultimately lift the sanctions from Russian athletes, from Russian officials and, of course, Russian money. It does not matter for them that Russia has not changed its behavior but, instead, escalated the daily terror and bloodshed in Ukraine. The IOC officials, however, maintain the same mantra: ‘Individual athletes cannot be punished for the acts of their governments.’
Both the IOC and most of the international sports federations would like to ease and ultimately lift the sanctions from Russian athletes, from Russian officials and, of course, Russian money
But how would they be ‘punished’? Murdered, like 600-plus Ukrainians? Exiled from their ruined country and occupied territories, like millions of Ukrainians? Dispossessed of their sport halls, stadiums, swimming pools, and even the possibility to hold regular trainings without bombings and air alarms? No, they are merely asked not to support, directly or indirectly, the genocidal war that their government wages in Ukraine. They are called on merely not to sportswash their rulers and their policies, not to enhance their symbolic power, and contribute with their personal fame to their criminal cause. As long as Russian athletes do not support their government’s genocidal war in Ukraine, they are not responsible. But in any case, as Russian citizens they are accountable for everything their country does. All of them have a choice, all of them can find a way to distance themselves from the criminal deeds of their government.
Vladyslav Heraskevych ran not just against IOC’s debatable rules, but against the IOC’s general tendency to make questionable decisions, in persistent avoidance of proper names (the Russian war in Ukraine is usually called a 'conflict' – just a minor family quarrel), and persistent attempts to downplay both the scale and uniqueness of that 'conflict': this is 'one war among 28 wars and conflicts going on this world and all the other athletes are competing peacefully with each other', said the head of the IOC. ‘The IOC certainly takes into account the fact that there are 135 conflicts involving military action on our planet. In this situation, the IOC cannot make selective decisions, as this would contradict the Olympic Charter’, adds another.
Ukraine faces an uphill battle – against an external enemy and domestic problems, but also against the rigidity and corruptness of international institutions, against the ignorance, selfishness and cynicism of international leaders, and against a growing 'Ukraine fatigue' within populations who increasingly see Ukraine as a nuisance that neither enjoys life nor allows others to fully enjoy it. But there are also committed fighters in all these realms, who are not giving up, who resist and retort, and give us a bit of hope.
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