Ukrainian Vladyslav Heraskevych is the most important athlete in the Olympics right now
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Sports veteran Richard Deitsch takes an international view of the Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee is not an organization that usually requests, but Vladyslav Heraskevych is requested. They are urging a Ukrainian marathoner not to compete in a helmet featuring the faces of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The IOC said such a move would violate the Olympic rule on political statements and that the helmet would not be allowed in competition. Heraskevych wore a helmet on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We will repeat the many opportunities he has to express his grief,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams on Wednesday. “As we have discussed before, he can do that on social media and press conferences in a mixed environment. So, we will try to talk to him about that and try to convince him … There are 130 conflicts going on in the world. We cannot have 130 different conflicts that are presented, no matter how bad, in the stadium, during the actual competition.”
Heraskevych’s story is a mirror – it shows the eternal illusion of how sports and politics don’t mix. Yes they do, and they did when the IOC awarded Vladimir Putin the 2014 Winter Games.
CBC Sports’ Rob Pizzo spoke with coach Vladyslav Heraskevych, who provided an update on the ongoing situation.
It’s a fluid situation and can change as you read this. Heat 1 of the skeleton is scheduled for 3:30 am ET on Thursday. The second heat starts at 5:08 am ET. The gold medal race comes on Friday.
Heraskevych did not enter the Games, her third Olympics, as a gold medal favorite, but a podium finish is a real possibility. He is ranked 11th in the world this season but finished second on Tuesday and fifth on Monday. His case is gaining momentum around the world and he has used the media effectively, including his ownto illuminate what his helmet represents.
There are many famous athletes in the Olympics but at the moment no one is important. The clash comes between Heraskevych and the IOC. How it plays out is anyone’s guess.
Your Olympic star of Week One
The expectation at the Milano-Cortina Games was that Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt would announce himself to the world as the single star of men’s skiing. It seemed like an easy bet. Odermatt, called by some the Roger Federer of ice, had the same kind of fame in the mountain world as Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn gave him 53 World Cup wins and a gold medal in the giant slalom at the Beijing Winter Games in 2022. He entered the Games as the best skater of his generation.
But when these Olympics end and historians examine the Games, it will be another Swiss skier who will be compared to the all-time Olympic alpine legends.
Franjo von Allmen, just 24, won gold in the men’s super-G on Wednesday, his third gold medal in less than a week of competition. He becomes the first male alpine skier to win three gold medals in a single Winter Games in 58 years and is now in a tie with all-time (Austrian Toni Sailer, 1956, and France’s Jean-Claude Killy, 1968) as the only male skiers to win three Olympic gold medals in a single Winter Games.
“I would like to win more, but to get a third medal, and moreover a third gold medal, all the planets will have to align,” Von Allmen said before Wednesday’s race.
The planets are aligned—and you’re looking at a star.
Who will play on Thursday?
One of America’s biggest winter stars and easily its most famous snowboarder will be on stage Thursday afternoon at 1:30 pm ET for the women’s snowpipe final in Livigno. Chloe Kim defended the gold medal twice (Pyeongchang and Beijing) but it was her lead in an unpopular way as he injured his shoulder during training in Switzerland in the second week of January. Kim is wearing a brace on her left shoulder but has set a personal best of 90.25 in training to prepare for the big final day.
Kim remains the only woman to win back-to-back Olympic halfpipe gold medals and is now trying to become the first snowboarder in Olympic history – male or female – to win three gold medals in a row. Others to watch in the women’s halfpipe include Japan’s Shimizu Sara with Judo Rise, US’s Maddie Mastro and 17-year-old Korean rising star Choi Gaon.
Olympic pictures
The Athletic has a great data piece for the men’s hockey tournament fpredictive food from a mathematical model uses player ratings to measure relative team strength, calculates each team’s probability of winning every game and simulates a full tournament 30,000 times.
Numbers you should know
1:06.28 – He beat US sprinter Jordan Stolz’s 1,000-meter time, a new Olympic record in the event.
9 – Olympic career goals for Juraj Slafkovsky of Slovakia. The Montreal Canadiens forward scored seven goals at the age of 17 in the past four years in Beijing.
What we read across the web
► Anna Gibson’s climb — the inevitable US Olympian, who made a mistake in ice climbing. By Brendon Quinn of The Athletic
► Infighting and resignations plague preparations for France’s 2030 Winter Olympics. By Samuel Petrequin of the Associated Press.
► A French biathlete convicted of fraud wins Olympic gold while his defrauded teammate comes in 80th place. By Andy Bull of the Guardian
► Lindsey Vonn’s accident raises fears for relatives of Olympic skiers. By Julia Frankel of the Associated Press.
► Mikaela Shiffrin’s intense slalom run leads to a ‘miracle’ for her US teammates. By Tim Layden of NBC Olympics.
► ‘We’re A Few Days From Sports, And The Students Need Me To Tell The Story.’ By Ivan L. Nagy of CJR.
► Ice hockey-Goalies show pride and personality with helmets. By Amy Tennery and Giulio Piovaccari for Reuters
