Ukrainian skeleton racer at Olympics seeks approval for helmet tribute to fallen athletes

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) - Vladyslav Heraskevych showed up for the Milan Cortina Olympics with a new helmet, one featuring the images of about a half-dozen of his fellow Ukrainian athletes.

They were all killed in Russian attacks.

And Heraskevych wants to offer a tribute.

The men's skeleton medal hopeful - who finished fourth at last year's world championships - is hoping that the International Olympic Committee lets him wear the helmet in competition later this week. He went through the first day of official training on Monday with the helmet, awaiting an IOC ruling on if it will be allowed on race day.

"We didn't violate any rules, and it should be allowed for me to compete with this helmet," Heraskevych told The Associated Press. "I cannot understand how this helmet hurt anyone. It's to pay tribute to athletes and some of them were medalists in the Youth Olympic Games. That means they're Olympic family. They were part of this Olympic family, so I cannot understand they would find a reason why not."

Figure skater Dmytro Sharpar, a onetime Youth Olympic Games teammate of Heraskevych, is on the helmet, as are boxer Pavlo Ishchenko, hockey player Oleksiy Loginov and others. Some, he said, were killed on the front lines; at least one died while trying to distribute aid to fellow Ukrainians.

"I didn't know all of them," he said. "But I knew a lot of them."

The IOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press about the helmet. Heraskevych has not shied away from voicing his opinion about the war; he spoke out last fall about how some athletes from Russia were given neutral status to compete in these Olympics.

Heraskevych, a flag bearer for Ukraine at last week's opening ceremony, displayed a sign after his fourth and final run of the 2022 Beijing Olympics saying "No War in Ukraine." Days after those Games ended, Russia invaded his country and the war has waged since.

There had been a question of whether the IOC might consider Heraskevych's act at that time a violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter. That rule, in part, states that "no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas."

But the IOC said shortly after that race there would be no repercussions over what Heraskevych did in Beijing, saying it was "a general call for peace."

Heraskevych hopes the same rings true this time as well.

"For me, it will be very important to pay tribute to these athletes," Heraskevych said. "We have to show also the huge price of Ukraine's freedom."