On Thursday, Feb. 12, Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the 2026 Olympic Games for violating International Olympic Committee (IOC) Rule 50 – which prohibits political speech – after continually wearing a helmet that featured the images of Ukrainian athletes who had been killed in the Russia-Ukraine war. Heraskevych has filed a challenge to the decision, arguing that “some things are more important than medals.”
Heraskevych’s disqualification is only the most recent instance of the IOC attempting to enforce its political neutrality policy by dampening political speech. However, the Olympic Games have never existed within a political bubble and the IOC’s attempts at censorship are ignorant of sports’ ever-present relationship with politics.
Leading up to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, several United States groups raised concerns about the Nazi regime’s discriminatory policies against Jewish people. Facing increasing pressure to boycott the 1936 Games, Avery Brundage, then head of the American Olympic Committee, toured Berlin’s facilities and proclaimed that Jewish athletes would be treated fairly. He ultimately concluded that American athletes should not become involved in what he called the “Jew-Nazi altercation.”
Brundage’s decision for the U.S. to participate in the Berlin Games played a large part in allowing the Nazi regime to use the Olympic Games as a tool for political propaganda, theatrically projecting the image of Nazi grandeur on the largest international stage. It masked the vile conditions that grew into one of the most horrific genocides in human history.
In the wake of World War II, Brundage was elected as president of the IOC, where he continued to advocate for keeping the Olympic Games free from politics and political speech.
During the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico, American track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos took to the podium without shoes, each raising a black-gloved fist in the air in protest of the unfair treatment of Black Americans. Smith and Carlos, alongside Australian competitor Peter Norman, also wore pins representing the athlete-led Olympic Project for Human Rights.
The image of Smith and Carlos with their fists in the air became an iconic symbol of the Civil Rights Movement but resulted in the two track stars being dismissed from the Olympic Village and suspended by the U.S. Olympic Committee. Presumably in reaction to the protest, the IOC officially enacted Rule 50 in 1975, which prohibited political, religious or racial demonstrations.
Nearly every iteration of the Olympic Games has seen some form of political speech that has raised questions about IOC restrictions. In 2016, Ethiopian marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa crossed his wrists above his head at the finish line to protest repression of the Oromo people in Ethiopia. Similarly, during the 2020 Summer Olympics, U.S. shot putter Raven Saunders crossed her arms above her head on the medal podium, representing the intersection of oppressed people. The 2020 Olympics also saw several women’s soccer teams kneel before matches in protest of racial injustice, continuing the trend of using the Olympic stage to address prevalent political issues.
The involvement of politics in sports has always been controversial. When an American Olympic skier expressed discomfort representing the U.S. given current political turmoil, President Donald Trump responded by calling the skier a “real loser,” while Vice President JD Vance argued that athletes should not “pop off” about politics during the Olympics.
Telling athletes on the largest international stage to keep quiet about political circumstances, many of which reflect concerns about human rights violations, is inappropriate. As an institution built on international cooperation, the IOC cannot turn a blind eye to the international political landscape.
Having banned Russia from participating in the 2026 Olympic Games due to its invasion of Ukraine, the IOC has acknowledged having a role in politics. But drawing that line of involvement at athletes’ speech is unfair to the many athletes who are closely affected by international issues.
While the relationship between politics and sports remains unresolved, the nature of the Olympics makes it impossible to ignore timely international issues. The IOC’s continuous attempts to keep the Olympics politically neutral are futile and ultimately harmful to the athletes the Games are built on.
