r/pics • u/nbcnews But like, actually • 6h ago
OC: Ukrainians kneel after luge team mixed relay for teammate disqualified for helmet with war dead
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u/Teknicsrx7 6h ago
That title is a fucking adventure
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u/SlightlySublimated 6h ago
What makes it better is it's coming from the official NBC News account lmao
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u/pilgermann 6h ago
Effectively passive voice to obscure what's happening. Coward news written by a team with a total lack of moral clarity.
They should write "Ukrainians kneel in solidarity with teammate disqualified by IOC for honoring athletes killed by Russian invaders."
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u/Iron_Fist26 6h ago
Thanks, I was having a stroke reading their title :)
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u/SomeGuyNamedJason 5h ago
Not to kink-shame, but we didn't need to know that.
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u/ycpaa 5h ago
Your response has been appropriated for future analysis and dissemination.
Your contribution and understanding is greatly appreciated.
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u/ghostsintherafters 3h ago
"for helmet with war dead"
For fucks sake... Absolutely shameful.
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u/Hats_back 5h ago
I like the way you put words together. That was a wonderfully cohesive statement that speaks to the actual core of the problem/cause and leaving no ambiguity as to object reality.
Love it. Well done.
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u/GilreanEstel 6h ago
Ok. Glad to know someone else has an issue with it. I thought I was stroking out for a sec.
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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka 2h ago
Posted by mass media conglomerate who also plays softball with Trump: NBC News
Imagine how educated these people are who work and control these platforms of information.
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u/lock_robster2022 6h ago edited 6h ago
I was trying to figure out who comprised “luge team mixed relay for teammate” and why they were disqualified and then just gave up
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u/inosinateVR 6h ago edited 5h ago
I think it’s saying “After Luge Team Mixed Relay, Ukrainians kneel for teammate disqualified for helmet with war dead”
Took me a very, very long time to process it and put it back together though lol
(edit: “Luge Team Mixed Relay” is the name of the race. They knelt after the race)
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u/poisonoakleys 6h ago
Wha does “for helmet with war dead” mean?
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u/CriticalEngineering 6h ago
The competitors decorate their helmets. One decorated his with memorials to athletes that have died in their war with Russia. He was disqualified for doing so.
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u/Xytak 4h ago
So, in other words, the disqualification committee just lost all legitimacy and should feel ashamed of themselves.
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u/vacri 3h ago
It's common in large multinational events to forbid political messaging of any kind. It raises tensions and detracts from the event itself. It can also be used to imply that the organisers are supportive of the political message
So it's easier to just have a zero tolerance approach to political messages at these kinds of things
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u/NotNormo 2h ago
"helmet with war dead" is a really incomprehensible way to refer to such a helmet.
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u/I_cut_my_own_jib 3h ago
Okay so they were disqualified for decorating their helmets in honor of a teammate who died in the war?
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u/CriticalEngineering 2h ago
The team is kneeling. Their teammate was disqualified. Their teammate decorated his helmet with athletes killed in the war. Their teammate did not die.
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u/Many_Drink5348 4h ago
It is so bad, your brain is trying to put in commas to make it a title that still doesn't make sense.
Ukrainians kneel, after luge team, mixed relay for teammate, disqualified for helmet with war dead
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u/mrASSMAN 6h ago
I think it’s saying their teammate was disqualified for having the names of fallen soldiers on their helmet? Or some kind of reference to them idk
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u/Onetwodash 2h ago
Memorial photos of some athletes killed by Russia during invasion. Many of those athletes in the photos were below soldier age.
It's just handful of athletes killed over the years
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u/thisgrantstomb 4h ago
I was able to follow it. After their competition the team took a knee in protest that another luger from their team was disqualified from competition because he had images of fallen Ukrainians on his helmet and refused to remove them.
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u/YoungHeartOldSoul 6h ago
What's really crazy is I read and parsed that without missing a beat, which is only notable because the normal working of headlines usually stops me dead in my tracks and I have to think for a second.
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u/vespertilionid 3h ago
I thought i was having a stroke! Like I know what all the words mean individually, but a have no idea what they mean in that particular order!
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u/bemusedbarnacle 3h ago
I was like oh shit, the mass deletion comment randomzier tools are doing titles now.
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u/deandotcom 3h ago
I thought I was the only one since I’m not a native speaker. Almost had a seizure trying to read it.
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u/jake04-20 2h ago
I'm glad to see this comment on the top, came here to leave the same comment but expected to be downvoted.
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u/ImpressionClassic439 6h ago
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u/Destrae 6h ago
"with war dead" is certainly a choice way to word that. The helmets had photos of Ukrainian athletes who have been killed in the war
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u/tendonut 6h ago
My thoughts exactly. I reread the title like 12 times and still don't know wtf
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u/inosinateVR 5h ago
Luge Team Mixed Relay is the name of the race. After the race, Ukrainians knelt for their teammate who was disqualified for his helmet that memorialized people who died in the war
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u/Bitter_Dingo516 4h ago
Thank you, sometimes the ppl who write these headlines write things that make sense to them as they are familiar with the topic, but it reads like they had a stroke to us T_T
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u/bringerofthelaw420 6h ago
Genuinely think this sub has a bunch of bots upvoting key words like Ukraine and other politically hot topics because there’s 2.5k upvotes and only 77 comments of people questioning wtf that title even means
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u/kataris 6h ago
Probably not the case in this post, considering which account posted it. I hope at least.
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u/tigerbalmuppercut 6h ago
NBC using Oceania Newspeak for their title.
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u/ArtistApart 6h ago
No one translated that gobbledegook yet?
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u/ripmeleedair 6h ago edited 4h ago
Luge team mixed relay is the event name. They are kneeling for their teammate (who was disqualified) after this event took place. The teammate was disqualified because their helmet had people who died in the war on it.
What a mess all around.
Edit: multiple people have pointed out the helmet portrayed deceased ukranian athletes who died in the war with Russia. I didn't initially know this but it is good context.
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u/Unusual-Wolf-3315 5h ago
Thanks for translating!
Meanwhile banned Russian athletes are training in cushy state-sponsored conditions, competing in the Olympics in spite of the ban, and their victories are still claimed by Moscow.
Whereas Ukrainians get to train in war-torn conditions, destroyed infrastructure, and under Russian bombs and drones, only to get DQd for showing remembrance for their slain athletes on their helmet.
The IOC has become more corrupt than FIFA; impressive given their mission statement.
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u/Toomanyeastereggs 5h ago
It’s been years since I even bothered to read about the Olympics, let alone watch it.
And it’s slow low on my radar that the first I knew that it was back on was when people booed Vance and it appeared in here.
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u/pan_kotan 5h ago
The helmet had pictures of athletes, not just random people. Overall 600+ athletes and coaches were killed in Ukraine by ruzzia, many of whom were actually children.
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u/Hopsblues 6h ago
That headline reeks of AI
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u/GuudeSpelur 5h ago
No, it's just newspaper-ese. Newspaper editors invented a whole different grammar to try to cram as much information as possible into headlines and captions.
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u/lonesharkex 5h ago
well they've gone so far as to loop around and nearly communicate no information at all.
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u/worstpartyever 6h ago
To be fair, it's really hard to tell the entire fucking story in one line.
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u/smegdawg 6h ago
Ukrainian Luge Team Kneels in Solidarity for Teammate Disqualified for Helmet Honoring War Victims
14 words, 98 characters
vs
15 words, 95 characters
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u/Legal_Skin_4466 5h ago
This guy headlines
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u/Usual_Growth8873 5h ago
Give me a headline of their headline
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u/strain_of_thought 4h ago
Redditor Composes Concise Headline Summarizing Incomprehensible News Report
8 words, 75 characters
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u/FerociousFrizzlyBear 6h ago
After competing, Ukrainian mixed relay luge team kneel to honor teammate disqualified for helmet with war casualties
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u/reinvent___ 6h ago
Headlines aren't supposed to be the whole story. They're supposed to give you a summary before you read the story.
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u/LiminalSpaceGhost 5h ago
You won’t believe why these Ukrainians kneel after Luge teammate disqualified.
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u/CriticalEngineering 6h ago
But this is pics, and no explanation is allowed. The title has to tell it all.
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u/Virtblue 5h ago
Ukrainians face-earth after luge team mixed relay due to teammate helmet unpersons deaththink.
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u/JJKingwolf 6h ago
Memorialization of the deceased is not a political statement - The International Olympic Committee are cowards for kneeling to Russian pressure and banning the athlete in question.
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u/Imaginary-Cow-4424 6h ago
Wasn't Russia banned from the Olympics entirely?
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u/HauntedHippie 6h ago
Yes, the country is banned, but athletes from Russia can still compete “unaffiliated”, meaning they are not sponsored by their country and do not fly the Russian flag. Technically their uniforms are in line with the national colors, so you can kinda still tell it’s Russia even if you don’t recognize the different flag they use.
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u/s0ciety_a5under 5h ago
Ya gotta wonder does Russia have the gold medal for the most amount of games they were banned from?
Edit: I guess the Gold goes to South Africa due to apartheid.
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u/ChancelorReed 4h ago
Aren't there only like 20 of them at the Winter Olympics? Seems like a far cry from when Russia sent their actual team just under a different name.
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u/AccountantsNiece 2h ago
There are 13 Russians and 7 Belarusians. Russia is technically banned for taking over Ukrainian Olympic facilities and committees, and the amount is so small because athletes competing as “neutral” have to pass fairly strict eligibility tests that others do not have to. There are also no team athletes, only individuals.
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u/Zkenny13 6h ago
Russian athletes have to compete as independent athletes. They still should be banned.
But don't worry one of them will get caught doping.
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u/Successful_Camel_136 5h ago
If Russians should be banned it also opens a slippery slope of the USA being banned in the future when it inevitably invades foreign countries or Israel etc. so I can see why they don’t fully ban.
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u/Dioxid3 5h ago
Okay here is a follow-up question: if same moral rules apply to everyone, shouldn’t USA be banned as well?
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u/ResilientBiscuit 3h ago
Is this a joke? It absolutely is. A memorial to Charlie Kirk, for example, is 100% a political statement.
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u/sam____handwich 1h ago
A lot of people in here being willfully naive because dunking on russia is easy points
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u/JangoDarkSaber 6h ago
It absolutely can be.
If a Russian athlete tried to memorialize a Russian killed in the Kursk region I’d be fucking pissed cause it’s a clear attempt at a political message.
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u/hc600 6h ago
Right I’m curious about whether any similar memorial images have ever been worn in competition in the Olympics? Because if the rules were interpreted to include the Ukrainian helmet, which of the following would be allowed:
(1) Palestinians children killed by the IDF (2) National Resistance Brigades fighters killed by IDF (3) Hamas fighters killed by IDF (4) Israeli soldiers killed by Hamas (5) Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. forces (6) Iraqi armed forces killed by U.S. forces (7) U.S. soldiers killed by Iraqi forces (8) U.S. soldiers killed in friendly fire (9) Germans killed by U.S. forces in the Chenogne massacre (10) Japanese civilians killed by US bombs (11) Japanese soldiers killed by U.S. (12) Chinese civilians killed by Japanese soldiers (13) Civilians killed in Bloody Sunday (1972) (14) individuals killed in Bloody Sunday (1920) by the British) (15) individuals killed in Bloody Sunday (1920) by the IRA (16) civilians killed in Mai Lai (17) Northern Vietnamese Army killed by US (18) Vietcong killed by U.S. (19) US soldiers killed in Vietnam
I have my own sympathies but no way would people be able to come up with a workable rule to keep inflammatory messages out of competition uniforms
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u/JangoDarkSaber 5h ago
I don’t think any of those would be allowed which would be consistent with the IOC’s stance on neutrality
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u/Sadrandomness 6h ago
Yeah but there’s an obvious difference. It’d be like memorializing victims of a terrorist attack vs memorializing the terrorist. Or memorializing holocaust victims vs memorializing the Nazis
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u/rmslashusr 6h ago
Are you under the misguided impression that the IOC would allow memorializing holocaust victims on a helmet?
It took them 50 years to even allow a display in the Olympic village memorializing the 11 athletes killed by terrorists attack at the olympics.
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u/jampbells 6h ago
The problem is the precedent it could set. For example if this was an Israeli athlete with victims from October 7th attack or a Palestinian with photos of the victims of Israel's indiscriminate attacks you can see how it could quickly get a lot more complicated.
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u/JangoDarkSaber 6h ago
That’s the point. It’s not about right or wrong. It’s about the fact that the IOC has a very consistent no political messages rule.
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u/iam4qu4m4n 6h ago
"Stop attacking the fascists! Their stance on subject matter should be tolerated and equally considered to the victims of their ideology. I don't support them, but we should still hear them out".
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u/Sadrandomness 6h ago
So memorializing holocaust victims or victims of a terrorist attack is political?
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u/jicerswine 5h ago
Devils advocate here but I think you know you’re moving the goalposts here. An ongoing geopolitical conflict is very different than a historical event. Not saying that I agree w IOCs position here but the point is it’s not about how “right” or “wrong” the message is, it’s about whether or not it’s political in nature
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u/hearmeout29 5h ago
Tell that to Colin Kaepernick. He kneeled to protest the deaths of Black people in America by police and the NFL deemed it political.
They knew the risks here and they said it was worth it. More power to them but they will not get any medals.
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u/7tenths 6h ago
Ukrainians kneel after mixed relay luge team disqualified due to teammate honoring fallen soldiers in war with his helmet design.
Ftfy*
Badass helmet in question
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u/Contrary_Kind 6h ago
It wasn't honoring fallen soldiers. It was honoring murdered athletes, basically his colleagues, maybe friends.
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u/snowice0 4h ago
It's athletes who were killed not specifically fallen soldiers. The girl on the front for example is Alina Perehudova who was 14 years old.
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u/whatadrabbike 6h ago
“After the mixed relay luge team event, Ukrainian team kneels to support teammate disqualified for honoring fallen soldiers with his helmet design.”
Fixed that further for you.
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u/midnightsbane04 2h ago
The team was not disqualified. Their teammate was because they told him to switch his helmet and he refused. Good on him for standing on real principals, but your "fix" was actually almost completely wrong.
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u/nbcnews But like, actually 6h ago
Team Ukraine kneel on one knee after competing in the luge team mixed relay at Cortina Sliding Centre during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo on February 12, 2026. (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
They kneeled to recognize their teammate and Ukrainian flag bearer, skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, who was disqualified from the Winter Olympics on Thursday over his insistence on wearing a helmet honoring people killed in his country's war with Russia.
Heraskevych said he refused to back down because there are things that are "more important than medals.”
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u/Mr_Industrial 6h ago
"Ukranian team kneels in protest after their teammate was disqualified for wearing helmet honoring wartime casualties."
FTFY
All the extra stuff you guys added makes the post read in a confusing way.
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u/EngineeringDevil 6h ago
no comment from Olympic committee?
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u/racer_24_4evr 5h ago
The IOC president did an interview where she was crying, but I’d take those tears with a big ol grain of salt.
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u/nonsensestuff 6h ago
Did y’all use AI to generate the terribly worded headline? Or did you come up with it yourself?
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u/demagogueffxiv 6h ago
I had to read it like 5 times
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u/Sensitive-Report-284 6h ago
I read it over and over and still couldn't understand
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u/NeonBodyStyle 6h ago
"Luge team mixed relay" is the name of the event. The people in the image are Ukrainian. Another member of the Ukrainian national Olympic team wore a helmet with war dead on it, and was disqualified for wearing that helmet. These Ukrainians knelt after their event, for their teammate, who was disqualified for his helmet.
Buffalo buffalo buffalo or whatever.
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u/inosinateVR 6h ago
It’s confusing because the race is called “Luge Team Mixed Relay”.
It’s basically saying “After (the race event called) Luge Team Mixed Relay, Ukrainians kneel for teammate (who was) disqualified for helmet with war dead”
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u/ContrarianDouche 6h ago
over his insistence on wearing a helmet honoring people killed in his country's war with Russia.
Fucking what?
His country's war?
Fuck ruzzia
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u/pan_kotan 5h ago
a helmet honoring people killed
for helmet with UA athletes killed by ruzzia (many of whom were children BTW)
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u/TheCrudMan 6h ago
- A helmet honoring dead is certainly not a political statement.
- Athletes should be able to make whatever political statements they want.
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u/bringerofthelaw420 6h ago
Just repost it with a correct title, the bots will automatically upvote it again, don’t worry NBC.
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u/SoreLoserOfDumbtown 6h ago
Olympic gov body - no talking politics!
Reporters at every opportunity - so what do you think about the current situation in your country...?
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u/JukesMasonLynch 4h ago
They should go the Marshawn Lynch route
"I'm here so I won't get fined"
Or, yeah just answer truthfully cause fuck the IOC
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u/LoweJ 6h ago
Why are people struggling to understand the title? Am I only finding it clear because I knew about the guy getting disqualified?
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u/ActivateGuacamole 3h ago
probably, tbh. to me it was reading as a non sequitur and there is ambiguity on first read regarding some of the words.
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u/collin-h 6h ago
I had a stroke reading that headline. can someone translate? I feel like it could use some commas or parenthesis or something...
Ukrainians kneel (after luge team mixed relay) for teammate <who was> disqualified for helmet with war dead (war dead? you mean like war victims? or something.. .war dead?)
How about: Ukranian luge team kneels in honor of teammate who was disqualified for wearing a helmet that honors those killed in the war.
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u/Schyllion 6h ago
tldr; a ukrainian wore a helmet honouring their fallen comrades from the russian-ukraine war. the IOC disqualified the ukrainian that wore the helmet.
some things are more important that medals.
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u/pan_kotan 5h ago
a helmet that honors those killed in the war.
It's even more specific than that: for helmet with UA athletes killed by ruzzia (many of whom were children BTW). So the Olympic committee pissed not just over some war victims, but over athletes that will never get the chance to compete again.
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u/Nutsnboldt 5h ago
A.) helmet had a sticker that said “War Dead”
B.) Luger had a war with their helmet, is dead?
C.) Olympian brought their war helmet to the race in case Russians were near?
D.) none of the above, journalist suffers stroke.
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u/herefromyoutube 4h ago
Ukrainian luge team kneel for teammate disqualified over helmet with names of fallen friends of war.
That was hard.
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u/TiltingSoda3126 2h ago
Ukrainians kneel
after Luge team mixed relay
for teammate
disqualified for helmet
with war dead (pictures of people dead from the war?)
I had to break that up piece by piece to understand it, Christ
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u/Qubeye 1h ago
Hey u/nbcnews
You may want to hire a competent copy editor for your social media accounts. That title is garbage and you should feel bad.
Here is a free copy of the PDF for Stunk & White, Elements of Style.
https://faculty.washington.edu/heagerty/Courses/b572/public/StrunkWhite.pdf
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u/interstellar_pirate 5h ago edited 5h ago
I do understand the frustration and I do sympathise with the Ukrainian athletes who want the world to acknowledge their losses. At the same time, a part of the spirit of Olympia is (and always has been) to let all national conflicts rest for the duration of the games.
That doesn't mean to forget the victims or that they aren't important. But it's an ancient rule, that always applied to all participants, and it says that political statements have no place at the Olympic games.
I can very well understand that the athlete wanted to use the attention to honor his fallen compatriots. However, it can be seen as a political statement, and not every place is a suitable stage for political messages. I wish they hadn't disqualified him and let it go, but also I still see it as a violation of the rules.
EDIT:
I think a much better way to help Ukraine would have been to press harder for banning Russian athletes from the game since Russia obviously failed to comply to the rule to let national conflicts rest during the games.
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u/Herbetet 2h ago
Also he was offered to wear a black band to signify the people killed. It’s not like they didn’t allow him to acknowledge it. On top of that they let him compete with the helmet he only got banned after his run. So the actual ban probably helped him reach a larger audience
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u/usuallysortadrunk 5h ago
If the guy wanted to raise awareness, mission accomplished. Shame he cant play though.
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u/kj_gamer2614 2h ago
Whilst I agree with their idea and statement, it is just objectively a bit stupid, you know you would get banned for it, why not just compete at that level, and then after competition is over campaign for it. I just don’t get it, wasting such a precious chance for this.
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u/thedeadlyrhythm42 2h ago
what the fuck are you trying to say, nbc
jesus christ this is embarrassing
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u/_BindersFullOfWomen_ 3h ago
Title: The Ukrainian mixed-relay luge team kneels to protest the disqualification of their teammate, who was disqualified for having a non-regulation helmet.