LA PLAGNE, France : Olympic competitors risk being used as "Russian propaganda" after the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals at the Paris Games, Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych said on Friday."I don't really understand why the IOC are acting like they are blind or something like that," Heraskevych told Reuters in a video call."I am fully okay if they compete but I am not okay if they use their achievements and their participation in Russian propaganda.
Because if they use it, then we have more victims in this war. "It's basically they are saying that they're okay if international sport will be used in Russian propaganda.
That's what I feel now." Heraskevych used his own moment in the spotlight at last year's Beijing Winter Olympics to hold up a paper sign reading "No War in Ukraine" to a television camera in between runs at the skeleton event.
Russian and Belarusian athletes were initially banned from competing internationally following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.