CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych said Friday that he knows there’s no pathway for him to race in the Milan Cortina Games, even if his disqualification is overturned on appeal by sport’s highest court.
“Looks like this train has left,” Heraskevych said.
But the appeal — heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday, a proceeding that went on for about 2 1/2 hours in Milan — is still worth winning, Heraskevych said. He was blocked from racing by the International Olympic Committee and his sport’s federation because he insisted on competing in a helmet showing the images of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches who have been killed since Russia invaded their country four years ago.
Heraskevych trained in the helmet but never got to the official starting line.
“From Day 1, I told you that I think I’m right,” Heraskevych said in Milan, draped in a Ukrainian flag and smiling as he predicted he would win the appeal. “I don’t have any regrets.”
CAS could issue its ruling later Friday, but even if Heraskevych wins, the chance to race is still lost. He has left Cortina d’Ampezzo’s Olympic Village already and said he has no plans to return to the mountains during these games.
The skeleton competition started Thursday morning, about 45 minutes after Heraskevych was disqualified, and ends Friday night. Even if CAS said Heraskevych should race, the logistical hurdles — the distance between Milan and Cortina and the fact the competition was half over when his appeal was heard are the two primary ones — would be massive.
Meanwhile, his disqualification was justified because he insisted on bringing his messaging — a tribute helmet — onto the field of play, IOC President Kirsty Coventry reiterated Friday. The IOC made its decision, one that moved Coventry to tears, based in part on the guidelines for athlete expression at the Olympics.
That says, in part, “the focus on the field of play during competitions and official ceremonies must be on celebrating athletes’ performances.” Heraskevych never made it to the field of play — not in competition, anyway — but was found to not be compliant with that guideline.
“I think that he in some ways understood that but was very committed to his beliefs, which I can respect,” Coventry said Friday. “But sadly, it doesn’t change the rules.”
The IOC contends that the rule is in place for multiple reasons, including protecting the athletes from pressure from their own countries or others about using Olympic platforms to make statements.
“I never expected it to be such a big scandal,” Heraskevych said, adding that he believes the IOC turned the story into a massive one by banning what he calls “the memory helmet.”
But the Ukrainian slider also said he found his accreditation for the games being taken away, then returned in short order on Thursday in what seemed like a goodwill gesture, was puzzling.
“A mockery,” he said.
Heraskevych has already missed the first two runs of his competition, with the final two runs set to take place on Friday evening — so there never was a possibility for him to get into the race after missing his first run.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said he believes the CAS ruling will come quickly, but neither he nor Coventry would speculate what happens if Heraskevych wins his appeal.
CAS director general Matthieu Reeb said the tribunal will try to render its decision quickly.
Heraskevych said he felt his disqualification was unfair and fed into Russian propaganda, noting that he and other Ukrainian athletes have seen Russian flags at events at these games — even though they are not allowed by Olympic rule. He has previously spoken out against the IOC’s decision to allow some Russians and Belarusians to compete at Milan Cortina as “neutral” athletes, and said the IOC empowered Russia by awarding it the 2014 Sochi Games.
He has also wondered why other tributes from these Olympics, such as U.S. figure skater Maxim Naumov displaying a photo of his late parents — killed in a plane crash last year — have been permitted without penalty.
Italian snowboard competitor Roland Fischnaller had a small Russian flag image on the back of his helmet during these games and Israeli skeleton athlete Jared Firestone wore a kippah with the names of the 11 athletes and coaches who were killed representing that country during the 1972 Munich Games.
The IOC said each of those cases were not in violation of any rules or the Olympic Charter. Naumov showed his photo in the kiss-and-cry area and not while he was actually on the ice, Fischnaller’s helmet was a tribute to all the past Olympic sites he competed at with Sochi included, and Firestone’s kippah “was covered by a beanie,” Adams said.
The IOC offered Heraskevych the chance to compete with a different helmet and bring the tribute on through the interview area, called a mixed zone, after he got off the ice for his runs or make other tributes such as wearing a black armband. It just didn’t want him making a statement by competing in the helmet or wearing it on the field of play.
“I think it’s the wrong side of history for the IOC,” Heraskevych said.
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AP journalists Annie Risemberg and Stefanie Dazio in Milan contributed to this story.
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