Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych is banned from competing at the Winter Olympics for continuing to wear a helmet which features images of athletes killed during Russia's invasion of his home country.
His helmet has pictures of friends and fellow athletes that have died. I promise you if they had all died in car wrecks with drunk drivers, the IOC would have no issue.
The ‘problem’ is that they all died defending their country from Russian invaders. This is politically charged harassment on behalf of Putin.
The IOC has been consistent on this. Images related to conflicts are not permitted. The IOC permits a plain black armband to commemorate individuals or events. He could have just done that.
His helmet has pictures of friends and fellow athletes that have died. I promise you if they had all died in car wrecks with drunk drivers, the IOC would have no issue.
The ‘problem’ is that they all died defending their country from Russian invaders. This is politically charged harassment on behalf of Putin.
The IOC has been consistent on this. Images related to conflicts are not permitted. The IOC permits a plain black armband to commemorate individuals or events. He could have just done that.
He could have, but he didn’t want to. Why on earth would it matter if they are “consistent” with this?