Vladyslav Heraskevych, the Ukrainian skeleton athlete disqualified earlier Thursday for his refusal to change his helmet honoring fellow athletes who have died during Russia’s invasion of his country, has filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Heraskevych registered the appeal with the court’s ad hoc division, CAS said in a statement. The group is on-site at the Olympics and can rule on cases quickly, though its statement did not offer a timeline.
Thursday, Heraskevych missed the first two runs of the men’s skeleton competition after being pulled from the start list following a ruling on his eligibility from the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation. The International Olympic Committee then withdrew his Olympic accreditation.
Heraskevych is asking to be reinstated immediately or to be allowed to perform supervised provisional runs until CAS rules on the case.
“Mr. Heraskevych argues that the exclusion is disproportionate, unsupported by any technical or safety violation and causes irreparable sporting harm to him,” the CAS statement said.
Time is tight for a resolution. The first two of the event’s four runs were completed Thursday morning, without Heraskevych. The final two runs of the competition are scheduled for Friday night.
Heraskevych’s “helmet of memory,” which he wore for training sessions earlier this week, has been the subject of one of the biggest controversies this week at the Milan Cortina Olympics. The IOC says the helmet, covered with images of Ukrainian athletes who have died since Russia’s invasion, violates its rules on athlete expression during competition. The IOC gave him the option of wearing a black armband during his race and only displaying his helmet afterward, but he refused.
“It’s not about the messaging. It’s literally about the rules and the regulations,” IOC president Kirsty Coventry said in a news conference. “In this case, the field of play, we have to be able to keep a safe environment for everyone, and sadly, that means no messaging is allowed.”
Heraskevych has countered that the IOC’s rules on messaging are not clear and that he doesn’t believe the helmet is in violation of the rules.
“In Ukraine, we have a lot of tears, and I don’t want to doubt her feelings,” Heraskevych told reporters of his meeting with Coventry. “But I don’t believe we violated the rules.”
The IBSF, the sport’s governing body, ruled that Heraskevych was violating its code of conduct. In a Thursday morning meeting, Coventry discussed the matter once more with Heraskevych. He maintained his position, then was pulled from the race. The IOC later withdrew his accreditation.
Heraskevych’s disqualification got the attention of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who thanked Heraskevych on X for attempting to compete in his helmet and called out the IOC for its decision.
Heraskevych is 11th in the IBSF world rankings. Great Britain’s Matt Weston, ranked No. 1 in the world, leads the Olympic competition after the first two runs.