WLadyslav Heraskevych, known as Vlady, provided one of the outstanding moments at the Beijing Winter Games. After the third of four runs on the track in Yanqing’s Sliding Center, the skeletoni pulled out a blue and orange-yellow poster from under his racing suit and held it up to the camera: “No war in Ukraine” was on it, printed in multiple colors, protected by transparent film so that nothing could happen to the paper during the frantic journey.
“Like any normal person,” he “doesn’t want a war,” said the 23-year-old, and that’s why he’s committed to it. Even the International Olympic Committee (IOC) saw his demonstration as a general call for peace and thus not a violation of Article 50 of the Olympic Charter, which prohibits athletes from expressing themselves politically during the Games. Heraskevych was not punished. After all. But his appeal of February 11 was ineffective. 13 days later, the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine began, which was already foreseeable during the “Olympic Truce” given the troop movements.
