#skeleton-sport

#skeleton-sport

"It's our goal. Our goal was always to compete," the 27-year-old told a press conference late on Thursday, hours after International Olympic Committtee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry had informed him that he had been disqualified from the competition. This came after he insisted on competing while wearing a helmet that bears portraits of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes killed in the ongoing war. He had worn the helmet in his five training runs each time placing among the top six.

I have repeated this from Day 1; I don't think it violates any rules. In accordance with Rule 50 we don't have any political propaganda, we don't have any racial propaganda, and we don't have any harassment towards anyone on this helmet. So I believe this helmet didn't (break) any rules," he said.

"The IOC fully understands the desire of athletes to remember friends who lost their lives in that conflict," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a news conference on Tuesday. "He has done that in training and on social media he has expressed his feelings but what we have said is this helmet contravenes the ... guidelines," he added. Skeleton racer to wear black armband Ukraine's Olympic Committee on Tuesday asked the IOC to allow Heraskevych to wear the "helmet of remembrance" at the Milano-Cortina Games.