"This was the race that will always be remembered for the one man who didn't make the start. Exactly 21 minutes before the men's skeleton was scheduled to begin the International Olympic Committee put out its press release announcing that it had revoked the Olympic accreditation of the Ukrainian slider Vladyslav Heraskevych after he refused to compete without his helmet decorated with the images of his fellow athletes who have been killed during the Russian invasion of his country."
"It was so late the two British competitors, Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt said they didn't even find out about it until after they had finished. By then, the news had already spread around the world, and the one Ukrainian journalist present, Stanislav Oroshkevych, from tribuna.com, found he was suddenly surrounded by colleagues from Germany, Britain, Japan, and a dozen other countries, all asking him for public comment on what was going on."
"By then the race was underway, so Heraskevych had to speak over the sound of the roaring crowd, and of his fellow sledders as they came hurtling towards the finish. Weston turned in back-to-back track records, 56.21sec, and 55.88sec, and he has a lead of three-tenths of a second over Germany's Axel Jungk, who won the silver medal in Beijing four years ago."
The IOC revoked Vladyslav Heraskevych's Olympic accreditation 21 minutes before the men's skeleton start after he refused to compete without a helmet decorated with images of fellow Ukrainian athletes killed during the Russian invasion. Heraskevych addressed about 30 journalists standing behind barriers near the finish with his helmet under his arm, producing images described as iconic. The two British competitors, Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt, learned of the revocation only after they had finished. Weston posted back-to-back track records (56.21sec and 55.88sec) and led Germany's Axel Jungk by three-tenths of a second, leaving him well placed for a medal with two heats remaining. Weston said he still had improvements to chase.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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