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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Sean Ingle in Milan

Heraskevych’s ‘helmet of memory’ forces IOC on to PR back foot at Winter Olympics

Vladyslav Heraskevych with his ‘helmet of memory’ after being disqualified from the skeleton event
Vladyslav Heraskevych with his ‘helmet of memory’ after being disqualified from the skeleton event. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

To be an Olympic-class skeleton racer requires extraordinary guts and impeccable nerve, as the corners loom and then whoosh past at frightening speed. So did anybody really believe that Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych would lose his when the world’s eyes were upon him?

Not the International Olympic Committee, who flipped between threats of expulsion and sweet talk over the past fortnight, without coming close to changing his mind. And certainly not those of us who have spoken and messaged Heraskevych, and found a man utterly prepared to sacrifice his dream of winning a Winter Olympic medal for a higher purpose.

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