Should he be disallowed from competing on Thursday, he will be remembered in Ukraine as an athlete who took a bold stand.

Vladyslav Heraskevych's helmet commemorates over 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches killed in the war with Russia.

Vladyslav Heraskevych, a skeleton sled racer, says he will wear a helmet showing images of Ukrainian athletes killed defending his country against Russia's full-scale invasion. International Olympic Committee officials say the move would violate rules designed to keep politics out of the Olympics.

As Ukrainian athletes prepare for the 2026 Winter Olympics, they will seek to boost the morale of their compatriots in Ukraine amid an ongoing war and a brutal winter.

German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) president Thomas Weikert has said that Ukrainian skeleton slider Vladyslav Heraskevych should accept the rules in his "helmet of memory" dispute with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"We have members of Olympic family, part of Olympic movement, and they don't even want to honor them," Vladyslav Heraskevych said of the International Olympic Committee

A WINTER Olympian has been banned from wearing an anti-Russia helmet with images of Ukraine war victims. Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was told by the International Olympic

Some individual athletes from the banned countries will be permitted to participate in the Milano Cortina Winter Games

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Ukraine’s flag bearer during the Olympic opening ceremony plans to continue wearing a helmet that commemorates the lives of Ukrainian athletes lost since Russia’s invasion, despite a ban from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which says it breaks Olympic rules on neutrality.

Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych said at the Winter Olympics Tuesday he will wear a helmet in competition commemorating athletes and coaches from his country killed since the Russian invasion,

27-year-old Vladyslav Heraskevych shared that he had donned the helmet in an effort to speak out about Russia's war on Ukraine

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, mark a historic moment for the Games. Not only because Italy is hosting for the first time since Torino 2006, but because these Olympics will be taking place in multiple locations, with venues scattered across the Italian Alps and Dolomites.