Marta Kostyuk Shares Emotional Reaction on Disqualification of Her Compatriot at the Winter Olympics

Marta Kostyuk has never hidden her sentiments about nationality in sports.

Marta Kostyuk Shares Emotional Reaction on Disqualification of Her Compatriot at the Winter Olympics

Marta Kostyuk (Image via X/Jose Morgado)

In Short
  • Marta Kostyuk expressed deep emotional distress over the disqualification of Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych at the Winter Olympics.
  • Heraskevych was disqualified for wearing a helmet that honored Ukrainian athletes, violating IOC's neutrality regulations.
  • The incident highlights ongoing tensions between athlete expression and political messaging in the Olympic framework.

There are moments in sports that go beyond the scoreboard. Moments that make a person stop, put down their coffee, and just feel the weight of what’s happening.

The disqualification of Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina was one of those moments. The shockwaves hit all the way to the tennis court, where Marta Kostyuk broke down in tears. Kostyuk said on HER WAY:

I found out about it between my practices yesterday, and I went, and I had a big cry in the bathroom because I was very empathetic towards it, especially as an athlete. It’s definitely a different story in tennis comparing to all these sports that they basically build their life around Olympics. I just had this rage and this deep feeling of unfairness in the world, like the daily struggles and just this disaster that Ukrainian people are going through every day including my family, friends and you know, just having this on top of it all was just mind-blowing for me and the tendency of certain decisions in the past couple of years is very disappointing in the world.

Something hits different when an athlete from a completely different sport is brought to tears by it. Kostyuk, one of Ukraine’s most prominent tennis players and a fierce advocate for her country, admitted she felt pure rage and wept after hearing the news.

This wasn’t just about a skeleton race. It was about a country fighting for its existence, watching one of its most celebrated winter athletes get sent home because of what was painted on his helmet.

What actually went down in Milano-Cortina?

Vladyslav Heraskevych, 27, is not some anonymous competitor. He’s Ukraine’s premier skeleton racer, a guy who has represented his country at multiple Winter Olympics and worn that pride like armor every time he hits the ice.

Vladyslav Heraskevych

For Milano-Cortina, he designed a custom helmet meant to honor Ukrainian athletes and reflect the resilience of a nation under siege. The International Olympic Committee looked at that helmet and said no.

Their ruling? The design violated neutrality regulations. Olympic equipment, per IOC policy, cannot carry political or symbolic messages. Heraskevych was disqualified. Ukraine lost its representation in skeleton. Just like that.

The IOC’s neutrality problem

Here’s where it gets complicated, and where sports fans and analysts are genuinely divided. The IOC has long maintained a strict stance on political expression during the Games.

Marta Kostyuk
Marta Kostyuk (Image via X/The Tennis Letter)

They’ve disciplined athletes before for symbolic gestures, and their position has always been that the Olympic stage should remain free from political messaging. In principle, one can see the logic.

But principle doesn’t always survive contact with reality. When a country is actively enduring what Ukraine is enduring, asking its athletes to scrub any trace of national solidarity from their gear feels less like neutrality and more like willful blindness.

Sports analysts covering the Games have pointed out that this is the central tension the IOC keeps refusing to resolve: where does legitimate athlete expression end and political statement begin? It’s a question they’ve been kicking down the road for years, and Heraskevych’s helmet just kicked it right back at them.

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