As athletes we try to focus on our event and the task at hand, but our lives do not take place in a vacuum As athletes we try to focus on our event and the task at hand, but our lives do not take place in a vacuum I ’m deeply saddened by the IOC banning skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych from the Winter Olympics. His helmet depicting images of athletes and children who died in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some who he knew personally, was a human display of remembrance. The IOC’s response