“I went to the bathroom and broke down in tears”: Marta Kostyuk breaks down over Ukrainian skeleton athlete’s Olympic ban

Marta Kostyuk has described breaking down in tears after learning that Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Geraskevych was disqualified from the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina. The world No. 28 spoke candidly about how the decision by the International Olympic Committee affected her personally, both as an athlete and as a Ukrainian.

Geraskevych is the principal representative of Ukraine in skeleton, an individual sled discipline in which athletes descend head-first down an ice track. He has competed in previous Olympic Games and is one of the most visible figures in Ukrainian winter sport. He had planned to compete at the Games wearing a special helmet honouring Ukrainian athletes who have died as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The IOC initially prohibited him from training or competing with the “Memorial Helmet.” After he declined proposed alternatives — including wearing a black ribbon or displaying the helmet only in the mixed zone — the governing body ultimately disqualified him from the event.

Kostyuk, currently the second-highest ranked Ukrainian on the WTA Tour behind Elina Svitolina, said she learned of the decision during a training break. The timing and circumstances amplified the emotional impact, she explained, particularly given the broader national context in which Ukrainian athletes continue to compete internationally.

Kostyuk said the news reached her between practice sessions, leaving little time to process it before emotions took over. “I learned about this decision during a break between training sessions," Kostyuk told to Her WAY. "I went to the bathroom and broke down in tears, because it affected me deeply, especially as an athlete.”

Her reaction, she said, was rooted not only in solidarity with Geraskevych but in a broader sense of frustration. “In tennis everything is completely different from other sports, where people build their lives around the Olympic Games.”

Kostyuk has been one of the most vocal Ukrainian players since the invasion began, frequently addressing issues of representation, ethics and responsibility within international sport. “I felt anger and a deep sense of injustice in this world, considering the daily struggle and the catastrophe that Ukrainians, including my family and friends, live through every day,” stated the former world No. 16. “And, you know, for something like this to happen on top of everything else simply does not fit in my head.”

Beyond the immediate emotional response, Kostyuk broadened her comments to question what she sees as a troubling pattern in international decision-making. “I don’t know, it’s just that… the tendency to make certain decisions in recent years around the world is very disappointing.”

She argued that when institutions fail to articulate consistent values, the long-term consequences can be destabilising. In her view, sport cannot be isolated from moral considerations, particularly when athletes are directly affected by war. “It seems to me that many governing bodies, unfortunately, do not have a clear stance on their values. And sooner or later, this will lead to collapse, because if you do not have values, if you do not have principles to defend and protect, I believe it cannot be viable in the long term.”

Kostyuk acknowledged that the issue remains difficult for her to articulate fully. Competing week after week on the WTA Tour requires compartmentalisation, yet she admitted that some developments are impossible to separate from personal experience. For Ukrainian athletes, she implied, the professional and the political are often inseparable. “And, yes, I don’t know… this is a very difficult topic for me, because, you know, sometimes certain solutions simply do not fit in my head at certain moments, and this was certainly one of them.”

The Ukrainian had begun the season at a high level in her first tournament, reaching the final of the Brisbane International, but ended up falling to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the final. One week later, she was eliminated in the first round of the Australian Open, in a three-and-a-half-hour battle against Elsa Jacquemot, in which she ultimately suffered an injury that has kept her out of competition since then.

The injury cut short what appeared to be a strong start to the season for Kostyuk, who had collected three top-10 wins in her opening week — a notable figure considering she had managed only one throughout the whole of 2025. The 23-year-old is expected to return this week at Indian Wells, where she will be the 28th seed — a tournament in which she has her best historical performance at a WTA 1000 after reaching the semi-finals in 2024.