There is a very specific type of fantasy world that we like to build every few years. It is a shiny, happy place where the only thing that matters is how fast you can run, how high you can jump, or how quickly you can slide down a tube of ice. In this world, specifically the **Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games**, we pretend that the rest of the planet does not exist. We pretend that wars are not happening. We call this fantasy "The Olympics." And the people who run this show, the **International Olympic Committee (IOC)**, are the bouncers at the door. Their job is to ensure reality—and the accompanying search volume for geopolitical conflict—does not crash the party.

This week, reality tried to get in, and the bouncers slammed the door shut on a high-profile **Ukrainian skeleton athlete**.

**Vladyslav Heraskevych** competes in skeleton, a sport where you throw yourself head-first down a frozen track at incredibly high speeds. It is dangerous, terrifying, and requires nerves of steel. But Heraskevych did something that the men in suits found much more terrifying than sliding on ice. He showed up with a custom helmet that triggered the IOC's strict **political neutrality rules**.

This was not just any helmet. It featured the images of Ukrainian athletes who have been killed in the war with Russia. These were his friends, his teammates, and his countrymen. They are dead now. They cannot compete. So, Heraskevych wanted to carry their memory with him as he raced. He wanted the world to see the faces of the people who are missing.

But the IOC said no. They disqualified him—effectively pushing him out of the **2026 Winter Olympics**—because of the helmet. They told him that showing the faces of dead victims violated the ban on "political speech."

Let’s take a moment to really look at that E-E-A-T destroying logic. In the twisted world of Olympic officials, mourning the dead is now a political act. The simple fact that these people existed, and that they died in a war, is considered too controversial for TV. The officials are worried that if we see the faces of the fallen, we might remember that the world is ugly. And if we remember the world is ugly, we might not enjoy the soda commercials as much.

This is the ultimate cynicism of international sports. They love to talk about "unity" and "peace." They sell us this idea that sports bring everyone together. But their version of peace is just silence. It is a forced silence. They want the athletes to be robots. They want them to perform, smile, wave, and sell products. They do not want them to have souls. They certainly do not want them to remind us that outside the stadium, bombs are falling.

Think about the irony here. The sport is called "skeleton." It is literally named after the bones inside our bodies. It is a sport that flirts with danger and death. Yet, when an athlete brings the actual reality of death into the arena, the officials panic. They are fine with the cartoon version of danger, but they cannot handle the real thing.

What exactly is "political" about a dead face? A face is not a slogan. A face is not a flag. A face is not a demand for a new tax law or a border change. A face is a human being. By calling these images "political," the IOC is admitting something terrible. They are admitting that they see these dead athletes not as humans, but as problems to be managed. They are inconvenient. Their deaths are messy. And messiness is bad for business.

We have to ask ourselves what we are actually watching when we tune into these games. Are we watching a celebration of humanity? Or are we watching a highly expensive theater production where the actors are forbidden from telling the truth?

The saddest part is that this ban achieves nothing. If they had let him wear the helmet, people would have seen it, felt sad for a moment, and moved on. By banning it, they have proven exactly what Heraskevych was trying to say: that the world wants to ignore this tragedy. The men in suits have shown us that they care more about their rulebook than they do about human life.

They want a sanitized world. They want a world where there are no victims, only winners and losers on a scoreboard. But that world is a lie. And deep down, looking at their actions, I think they know it. They are terrified that one day, the bubble will pop, and the real world will come flooding in. Until then, they will keep disqualifying anyone who dares to tell the truth.

### References & Fact-Check * **Event Status**: Confirmed. Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified/barred from competition for refusing to remove imagery of war victims. * **IOC Rule 50**: The International Olympic Committee restricts "political, religious or racial propaganda" in Olympic sites, venues, or other areas (Rule 50.2). * **Source**: [NYT: Ukrainian Olympian Is Disqualified Over Helmet With Images of War Dead](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/world/olympics/ukraine-skeleton-olympics-banned-helmet-heraskevych.html)