Ukrainian Olympic team calls for peace as IOC discourages protests
National team follows lead of skeleton racer who held sign saying 'no war'
The Ukrainian Olympic team has followed the lead of skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych in calling for peace.
Heraskevych held up a sign with a Ukrainian flag and the message "No War in Ukraine" after completing a run in the skeleton competition on Friday at the Beijing Games. The message came against the backdrop of a Russian military build-up near the country's border with Ukraine.
WATCH | Heraskevych makes a statement:
"The Olympic Team of Ukraine ... expresses a unanimous call for peace together with [our] native country," the Ukrainian Olympic Committee wrote on social media. "Being thousands of kilometres away from the Motherland, mentally we are with our families and friends."
The statement doesn't mention Russia or the military situation.
That doesn't mean the IOC wants other athletes to join in, however.
"We all want peace, clearly," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Sunday. "Athletes themselves have agreed that the field of play and the podium is not the place for any kind of statement because we need to remain politically neutral ... The message was understood. It [the sign] wasn't repeated and I think we can move on."
No Ukrainian athletes have so far followed Heraskevych's lead by protesting in competition.
