The Ukrainian athlete has his helmet banned. How does the IOC apply its rules to political statements?
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The Olympics have long been a political standoff, with countries boycotting or banning them due to national disputes.
But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) says politics must stop once the games start – keeping the competitions and podiums free of “interference” from politics.
But what constitutes interference can be complex.
Even after the IOC on Thursday banned Vladyslav Heraskevych from Ukraine – for wearing a hat decorated with pictures of war victims – the president. Kirsty Coventry broke down in tears as she explained the decision, saying that although the helmet broke the rules, she was not against its “powerful” message.
Heraskevych, a skeleton competitor, defied the IOC after being told he could not wear the helmet, which symbolizes Ukrainian athletes killed by Russia – a country banned from the Olympics since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Rule 50 has come into effect as the IOC bans Vladyslav Heraskevych from wearing his helmet at the Winter Games.
Although the decision sparked an outcry from Heraskevych’s teammates, the Olympic historian says it is consistent with a strict interpretation of the rules.
“On the one hand, it’s a memorial to fallen comrades. It’s also a clear political statement about the nature of that war,” said Bruce Kidd, a former Olympic runner and emeritus professor at the University of Toronto, who writes about the war. history and political economy of sport.
Athletes are allowed to make political statements outside of sports and events, including press conferences and on social media. Some have taken advantage of that this year — notably, several American athletes who criticized their country with anti-ICE messages.
But Heraskevych says the rules have been unfairly applied to him, citing examples including an Israeli skeleton athlete. Jared Firestone, who wore a kippah bearing the names of the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed in the attack on the 1972 Games in Munich, Germany.
On the other hand, the IOC ordered this year’s team of two Haitians to remove from their coats for the opening ceremony the image of Toussaint Louverture, a former slave who was the leader of the Haitian Revolution some 200 years ago.
Kidd says that enforcing these laws, and defining what constitutes a political statement, can be difficult and sometimes unclear.
19th century origins
The non-political rules go back to the origins of today’s Olympics.
In the 1890s, founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin saw the Olympics as part of a campaign to promote global peace and understanding, Kidd said. Criticizing another country’s politics can undermine that effort.
However, some athletes “pushed those boundaries by speaking, while other athletes, subtly, made statements that were read by anyone who knows the signs as political statements,” he said.
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In one of the first and most dramatic examples, Irish track star Peter O’Connor – upset that he had to compete against Great Britain since Ireland did not have its own Olympic committee – climbed a 20-foot flagpole at the 1906 Athens Games to raise the Irish flag with the words “Erin Go Bragh,” or Ireland Forever.
The IOC did not punish him, although for other reasons it re-reduced those games from official Olympic recognition.
Perhaps the most famous example came at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City, where American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who finished first and third respectively, wore black gloves and raised their fists in the air in a “Black Power” salute from the podium.
They were suspended from the US team and forced to leave the Olympic Village.
Political statements have continued in recent years, if quietly.
Canadian runner Monica Pinette wore a Metis belt at the event The 2004 closing ceremonies in Athens, where he was the only Indigenous competitor. But in 2008 in Beijing, he told the Globe and Mail that he would not wear it again because officials made it clear that they would strictly follow the rules surrounding political symbols.
Ethiopian Marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa also got to speak with the IOC, but avoided punishment, after crossing his arms at the finish line during the 2016 Games in Rio, an act of protest in solidarity with his Oromo people.
In 2020, the The IOC has allowed German women’s hockey player Nike Lorenz to wear a rainbow armband at the 2020 Tokyo Games to represent 2SLGBTQ+ solidarity, despite some saying it broke the rules.
Kidd says statements that don’t involve state politics can be considered acceptable, though he says enforcement over the years has been “fraught with contradictions.”
He says games which is intended to be played in the spirit of the values of freedom and respect for other people, and the main point of the political ban is to strive to avoid hate speech or opposition that may provoke the wrath of the state.
“Trying to include the whole world of sports is complicated enough. But then you throw all the differences and all the conflicts into the whole world, and you try to manage that in a way that will promote respect and understanding between people who hate each other,” Kidd said.
“That’s a real challenge. And it’s even harder now, when there’s so much tension and xenophobia in the world.”
