Sawt Falasteen - Ukraine's Heraskevych hopes 'truth will prevail' in Olympics appeal

Heraskevych, 27, was banned from the Games on Thursday for refusing to drop his insistence on wearing a helmet carrying pictures of Ukrainian sportsmen and women killed since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Gestures of a political nature during competition are forbidden under the Olympic charter and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Heraskevych had failed "to adhere to the IOC athlete expression guidelines".

The decision drew fury in Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelensky said it "played into the hands of aggressors".

Athletes at an Olympics have the right to appeal decisions made by their sport's federations -- who oversee the events within the Games -- at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which is sitting in Milan.

After emerging from the CAS hearing, Heraskevych said: "I'm really thankful for the opportunity to speak and we were treated equally at the hearing room and arguments were heard.

"We are waiting for the decisions, but as you see I look pretty happy so I'm pretty positive about how it went. I hope truth will prevail and still I know that I was innocent."

The qualifying for Heraskevych's event took place on Thursday and the final is on Friday so it is unclear what it would mean if he is reinstated.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said on Friday: "Speculation on the outcome of the court case at this stage is not very helpful. We will do whatever we can, whatever the result is, but I think we have to wait for this result."

Kirsty Coventry, the IOC president and a former Olympic gold medallist in swimming, met with Heraskevych, who was one of Ukraine's flag bearers in the opening ceremony, early on Thursday in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade him to change his mind about the helmet before his competition started.

"My conversation with Vlad and his dad yesterday was a very good conversation, a very respectful conversation and you know, it was a time really for me and him to speak as athletes," Coventry said on Friday.

"That was really important for me and I think for him and I shared with him yesterday how the process went."

But on the issue of political messages, "the rules are the rules as they stand today", Coventry said.

I.Yassin--SF-PST