Ukrainians Begin Their Fight for Olympic Skeleton Licenses: How the Season's First World Cup Stage Went

Ukraine has a chance to win two Olympic skeleton licenses for the first time in its history.

18-year-old Yaroslav Lavreniuk and 26-year-old Vladyslav Heraskevych began the 2025/2026 winter Olympic season with the first stage of the Skeleton World Cup. The competition took place November 21 on the track in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the venue for the 2026 Olympics.

Besides the Ukrainians, athletes from 21 countries took part in the opening stage in Italy. Olympic qualification itself runs through January 18, 2026. Among men, 25 quota spots will be awarded based on results from the World Cup, European Cup, North American Cup, and Asian Cup stages.

How the First Skeleton World Cup Stage of the 2025/26 Season Went for the Ukrainians

• In the first run, Yaroslav Lavreniuk started 26th. The athlete managed to improve his track time, ultimately posting a result of 57.7 seconds.
  
  The 2024 Youth Olympic Games silver medalist placed 25th provisionally and advanced to just his fourth second run of his career. In it, the U20 world champion lost one-tenth of a second to his own time — 57.8 seconds — finishing 25th overall.
  
  Previously, the 18-year-old athlete's best result among adults was 21st place at the 2025 World Championships.

• Vladyslav Heraskevych also lost ground at the start — posting a time of 4.78 seconds, which was the 24th-best result. Still, following the first run, Team Ukraine's leader made the top 10 with a time of 57.21 seconds.
  
  In the second run, Heraskevych dropped three positions, though he improved his time — 57.15 seconds. As a result, the Ukrainian finished 11th overall.
  
  This season, Vladyslav is competing for the chance to represent Ukraine at the Olympics for a third time. At the 2025 World Championships in Lake Placid, the skeleton athlete finished fourth — Ukraine's best result in history.

The Skeleton World Cup continues November 28 with a stage in Innsbruck, Austria.

Earlier, in an interview for DeTalks, Ukrainian skeleton athlete Yaroslav Lavreniuk spoke about skeleton, the Youth Olympics, and the challenges facing winter sports in Ukraine.