Olympic officials respond to Ukrainian’s ‘No War’ message
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has revealed it spoke to the Ukrainian athlete who showed a 'No War' message at the Beijing Games, and reiterated that the Olympics must remain politically neutral.
Skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych held up the sign, which was printed on a blue and yellow piece of paper to represent the colors of the Ukrainian flag, after completing a run in the men's skeleton event on Friday.
He did not, however, display the message again or anything similar for the rest of the evening, but did comment that "like any normal people, I don’t want war. I want peace in my country, and I want peace in the world. It’s my position, so I fight for that. I fight for peace."
At a press briefing on Sunday morning in the Chinese capital, the IOC's Olympic Games executive director, Christophe Dubi, and its director of communications, Mark Adams, were probed on the matter.
"I think that 'no war' is a message we can all relate to and this is something we hope for any people currently either suffering because of war conditions or the prospect of [war]," Dubi began as tensions remain between Russia and Ukraine.
"So this is a message that is incredibly human and moving [for] all of us."
Adams stated that the IOC "immediately" spoke to Team Ukraine and then Heraskevych to explain the situation to them.
"As you [saw] in his final run, he ran without that [the sign]," Adams pointed out. "He understood."
"I mean we all want peace, clearly. Even the [IOC] president [Thomas Bach] mentioned it in his opening speech at the opening of the Games: give peace a chance.
"But everyone has agreed and the athletes themselves have agreed that the field of play and the podium is not a place for any kind of statement because we need to remain politically neutral," Adams went on.
"For us, this is axiomatic. It's not just part of the upholstery, if you like... It is the fundamental core to what we do. So for us that was understood, the message was understood, it wasn't repeated and I think we can move on from that," Adams finished.
Managing no better than 16th place in his four heats, Kiev native Heraskevych, who is his country's first-ever skeleton racer, failed to make an impact on the men's skeleton event won by Germany's Christopher Grotheer.
