Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy — Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych is out of the Milan Cortina Games after refusing a last-minute plea from the International Olympic Committee to use a helmet other than the one that honors athletes killed in Russia’s war on his country.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry was waiting for Heraskevych at the top of the track when he arrived around 8:15 a.m. Thursday, about 75 minutes before the start of the men’s skeleton race.

They went into a private area and spoke briefly, and Coventry was unable to change Heraskevych’s mind. The Ukrainian athlete briefly addressed reporters and said he would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“It’s hard to say or put into words. It’s emptiness,” he said. 

“This is price of our dignity,” he added in a social media post. 

Coventry spoke with reporters after the meeting, tears rolling down her face as she spoke.

“I was not meant to be here but I thought it was really important to come here and talk to him face to face,” Coventry told reporters, according to the Reuters news agency. “No one, especially me, is disagreeing with the messaging, it’s a powerful message, it’s a message of remembrance, of memory. The challenge was to find a solution for the field of play. Sadly we’ve not been able to find that solution. I really wanted to see him race. It’s been an emotional morning.”

The IOC added that it made its decision “with regret.”

“Despite multiple exchanges and in-person meetings between the IOC and Mr Heraskevych, the last one this morning with IOC President Kirsty Coventry, he did not consider any form of compromise,” the IOC said in a statement. “The IOC was very keen for Mr Heraskevych to compete. This is why the IOC sat down with him to look for the most respectful way to address his desire to remember his fellow athletes who have lost their lives following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The essence of this case is not about the message, it is about where he wanted to express it.”

Heraskevych came to the Olympics with a customized helmet showing the faces of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches who were killed during the war, a conflict that started shortly after the 2022 Beijing Games ended.

The IOC said Monday night that the helmet wouldn’t be allowed in competition, citing a rule against making political statements on the Olympic field of play. Heraskevych wore the helmet for training Tuesday and Wednesday anyway, knowing the IOC could ultimately keep him from the Olympic race.

“The helmet does not violate any IOC rules,” Heraskevych said.

The IOC had sided with Heraskevych before. When he displayed a “No war in Ukraine” sign after his fourth and final run at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the IOC said he was simply calling for peace and did not find him in violation of the Olympic charter.

“We want him to compete. We really, really want him to have his moment,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Wednesday. “That’s very, very important. We want all athletes to have their moment and that’s the point. We want all our athletes to have a fair and level playing field.”

The first two runs of the race were Thursday, with the final two runs on Friday night. Heraskevych was a legitimate medal hopeful.

Speaking with CBS News’ Aidan Stretch in Kyiv on Wednesday, Ukrainian artist Iryna Protts, who made Heraskevych’s helmet, said she would be “very upset” if he wasn’t allowed to wear it.

“This world of mine looks like hypocrisy,” she said. “A lot of our people have been killed. Our intelligent people have been killed. Our businesspeople have been killed. Our athletes have been killed. And now it’s already the fourth year of the war, and it feels like no one cares. Everyone just looks on, silently.”

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday that it believes the teenage daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is close to being designated as the country’s future leader as he moves to extend the family dynasty to a fourth generation.

The assessment by the National Intelligence Service comes as North Korea is preparing to hold its biggest political conference later this month, where Kim is expected to outline his major policy goals for the next five years and take steps to tighten his authoritarian grip.

In a closed-door briefing, NIS officials said they are closely monitoring whether Kim’s daughter — believed to be named Kim Ju Ae and around 13 years old — appears with him before thousands of delegates at the upcoming Workers’ Party Congress, said lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the meeting.

First appearing in public at a long-range missile test in November 2022, Kim Ju Ae has since accompanied her father to an increasing number of events, including weapons tests, military parades and factory openings. She traveled with him to Beijing last September for Kim’s first summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in six years on the sidelines of a World War II event.

Speculation about her political future intensified last month when she joined her parents on a New Year’s Day visit to Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a sacred family mausoleum displaying the embalmed bodies of her late grandfather and great-grandfather, the country’s first- and second-generation leaders. Some experts saw the visit as the clearest sign yet that she’s positioned to be the heir to her 42-year-old father.

South Korean officials initially expressed doubt that she could be chosen as a North Korean leader, citing the country’s deeply conservative culture and tradition of male-dominated leadership. But her increasingly prominent appearances in state media have prompted a reassessment.

In its previous assessment of Kim Ju Ae’s status in September, the NIS told lawmakers that Kim Jong Un’s decision to bring her along on his trip to China was likely part of an effort to build a “narrative” possibly paving the way for her succession.

“In the past, (NIS) described Kim Ju Ae as being in the midst of ‘successor training.’ What was notable today is that they used the term ‘successor-designate stage,’ a shift that’s quite significant,” Lee said.

According to Lee, the agency cited her growing presence at high-profile military events, her inclusion in the family visit to Kumsusan, and signs that Kim Jong Un was beginning to seek her input on certain policy matters.

Despite her increased visibility in propaganda, North Korean state media have never published the name of Kim Jong Un’s daughter, only referring to her as his “respected” or “most beloved” child.

The belief that she is named Kim Ju Ae is based on an account by former NBA star Dennis Rodman, in which he recalled holding Kim Jong Un’s baby daughter during a trip to Pyongyang in 2013. South Korean intelligence officials believe she was born sometime that year.

In 2023, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that Kim Jong Un and his wife also likely have an older son and a younger third child whose gender is unknown.

Since its foundation in 1948, North Korea has been ruled by male members of the Kim family, beginning with the country’s founder Kim Il Sung and followed by his son, Kim Jong Il.

Kim Jong Un was just 26 when he was officially named heir during a 2010 party conference, two years after Kim Jong Il suffered a debilitating stroke. Following his father’s death in December 2011, he was abruptly thrust into the throne with relatively little preparation.

Some analysts suggest that Kim Jong Un’s decision to debut his daughter early possibly reflects his own experience of being rushed into power.

Kim Ju Ae’s first known visit to Kumsusan last month was also her father’s first visit to the site in three years. Given the palace’s status as a key symbol of the Kim family rule, the trip should be seen as a symbolic gesture by Kim Jong Un to present his daughter as his heir before his grandfather and father as he prepares for the major ruling party congress, said Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute.

The Workers’ Party congress in late February, last held in 2016 and 2021, could provide a stage for Kim Jong Un to formalize his succession plans, possibly by giving his daughter the party’s first secretary post, its No. 2 job, although such a decision might not be immediately disclosed to the outside world, Cheong said.

Other analysts question whether she would receive such a high-profile post or any formal party role, given that party rules require members to be at least 18.

If Kim Jong Un does use the party congress to cement his daughter as successor, the signs would be more subtle, said Koh Yu-hwan, former president of South Korea’s Institute of National Unification.

For example, the party may issue self-praise about how North Korea has survived longer than most other Communist states and credit that to how the country established a “successful inheritance of the revolution,” he said.

“If you see comments like that, it would be reasonable to think that Ju Ae has been cemented,” as heir, Koh said.