00:00The big Olympic story today, Vladislav Hedoskiewicz, the Ukrainian skeleton racer,
00:05effectively banned from the Olympics by the IOC because he was wearing a skeleton helmet
00:10that depicted the images of several athletes who have been slain since Russia invaded the Ukraine nearly four years ago.
00:18IOC President Kirstie Coventry visited with Hedoskiewicz and his father in Cortina.
00:23The challenge that we are facing is that we wanted to ask or come up with a solution for just
00:31the field of play,
00:32for just the, I know he's very quick, so I think it's two minutes to not be wearing the helmet
00:39on the field of play.
00:40And sadly, we've not been able to come to that solution.
00:46I really wanted to see him race today. It's been an emotional morning.
00:50Hedoskiewicz held firm, saying on social media, this is the price of dignity.
00:55His accreditation was taken away from him.
00:58I still don't understand regulations, and I can't understand fully what I'm violating.
01:04So is it rule 50, or is it rule 40 regarding athlete's expression, and what is meaning of expressions?
01:10You can imagine I'm a professional athlete, and I spend hours of trainings every day for four years,
01:17going through the whole world, competing in all the World Cups, to be able to be here today to compete
01:23on Olympic Games,
01:25on the biggest event of the four years, and I was disqualified, and I cannot understand even why.
01:31Okay.
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