Heraskevych has said he will respect Olympic rules while still raising awareness about the war in Ukraine at the Games.
“We have over 90 countries competing here, thousands of athletes, there are a range of things people want to commemorate,” Adams added.
“We want in the Olympics a safe space to compete away from that, while allowing them to express themselves.
“He can wear an armband with no text. However much we agree with an expression, we have to keep a fine balance.”
Adams said people will always “push rules to their limit” and the IOC will assess each case on an individual basis.
“Our rule is that we have to protect the field of play, it is difficult and there will be people who try to game the system, that’s where we have to ban slogans,” Adams said.
“Where there is good reason, black armbands will also be allowed for other athletes.”
He said Toshio Tsurunaga, the IOC representative in charge of communications between athletes, national Olympic committees and the IOC, had been to the athletes’ village to tell him.
“The IOC has banned the use of my helmet at official training sessions and competitions,” Heraskevych, who was a Ukraine flagbearer in Friday’s opening ceremony, said on Instagram on Monday., external
“A decision that simply breaks my heart. The feeling that the IOC is betraying those athletes who were part of the Olympic movement, not allowing them to be honoured on the sports arena where these athletes will never be able to step again.
“Despite precedents in modern times and in the past when the IOC allowed such tributes, this time they decided to set special rules just for Ukraine.”
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Heraskevych “for reminding the world of the price of our struggle” in a post on X., external
Heraskevych, Ukraine’s first skeleton athlete, held up a ‘No War in Ukraine’ sign at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, days before Russia’s invasion of the country.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 athletes from Russia and Belarus were largely banned from international sport, but there has since been a gradual return to competition, although not under their national flags.
The IOC cleared 13 athletes from Russia and seven from Belarus, external to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs) in Milan-Cortina.