A third Ukrainian athlete has been banned from competing in his helmet — this time, short track speed skater Oleh Handey.
“I have a quote by Lina Kostenko written on my helmet: ‘Where there is heroism, there is no final defeat.’ They banned it. They said it was a political slogan, that it was about war, that it wasn’t allowed. I translated it for them word for word — no, it’s a political slogan. These are simply motivational words for me, for my team, and for my country. Why not? ‘Not allowed, it’s political, it’s propaganda.’”
I’ll say something that might sound controversial, but this whole situation with the 2026 Olympics increasingly reminds me of how Ukrainians were treated during the Soviet Union, when any Ukrainian position was banned and there were always “reasons” given: it discriminates against others, it violates equality, it makes Russians uncomfortable — meaning, ahem, it’s chauvinism, it’s an expression of aggressive Ukrainian nationalism, and so on.
“Oleh’s story repeats the experience of Ukrainian freestyle skier Kateryna Kotsar, whose helmet was banned because of the inscription ‘Be brave like Ukrainian.’”
And while on one side there is pressure from the International Olympic Committee, on the other side additional organizations get involved — institutions where, much like in key Soviet structures, Ukrainians simply are not represented. Yet it isn’t difficult to understand who is represented there, and with what views toward us — and this time it is the International Skating Union (ISU).
“My career right now is okay, but the future… ISU doesn’t really favor us, in my opinion. Because we have no representatives in ISU. I don’t like that we don’t have anyone there at all. So we don’t have support, and they can do whatever they want with us. And I was made to understand that it would be better not to do this for the sake of my future career. No, this wasn’t the IOC — it was specifically the ISU who banned it.”
Ukrainian athletes are currently being treated like dissidents within a hostile system, where any position is seen as a protest. And so we see a similar dissident behavior from Ukrainians like quickly pinned notes with words written on their palms.
So I’m just waiting for the infamous words to be said:
“A Ukrainian has been condemned for Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism.”
