Ukraine’s Olympic flag bearer told to remove helmet honoring 591 athletes killed in war

Ukrainian skeleton athlete and flag bearer at the 2026 Winter Olympics Vladyslav Heraskevych has reported that an International Olympic Committee official has banned him from using a helmet featuring images of athletes killed in Russia's war against Ukraine. The athlete announced this on Instagram.

According to Heraskevych, IOC representative Toshio Tsurunaga "issued a critical ban" on using the helmet during competitions and official training sessions.

"Given the fact that yesterday [8 February] an Italian snowboarder [Roland Fischnaller] competed with a Russian flag on his helmet, which is banned by the IOC – there was no reaction to that. But to a helmet with fallen Ukrainian athletes – and by the way, there are Olympians among them, members of the Olympic family – to this we received a critical ban," Heraskevych said.

The athlete said he is preparing an official request to the IOC. He hopes this was the position of just this one official, not the entire Committee.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the athlete for "reminding the world of the price of our struggle."

"This truth cannot be inconvenient, inappropriate, or called a 'political action at sports competitions.' This is a reminder to the whole world about what modern Russia is," the head of state wrote.

On 9 February, Heraskevych competed in this helmet during the first training sessions on the Olympic track, Suspilne reported.

As of March 2025, Russians had killed 591 Ukrainian athletes and coaches, 22 were in captivity, and 11 were considered missing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.

The opening ceremony of the Olympics took place in Italy on the evening of 6 February. The Games will run until 22 February. The host cities are the alpine resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo and Milan, though competitions are also taking place in other locations in northern Italy.