Winter Olympics head coach sent home after alcohol-related incident

Finland's national ski jumping head coach, Igor Medved, has been dismissed from the Winter Olympics after team officials determined the Slovenian had breached internal regulations following an alcohol-related incident during the Games.

The former ski jumper, who has apologised, guided Finland to sixth place in Tuesday’s mixed team event but will play no further role in Milano Cortina.

Lasse Moilanen is set to take over for the remainder of the Olympics, the team confirmed.

Janne Hanninen, manager of the Finnish team, said in a Thursday press release: "Medved has travelled home today. It is about issues related to alcohol consumption. We take the violation of the team's rules seriously and react quickly."

The Finnish Ski Association added that the 44-year-old Medved remains under contract, with the matter to be formally reviewed once the Olympics have finished.

"I made a mistake and I'm very sorry. I want to apologise to the entire Finnish team, the athletes and also the fans. I wish the team peace to focus on the Games and continue the good work. I will not comment further on the matter," Medved said.

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The next ski jumping medal event is the men's individual Large Hill on Saturday.

Medved’s dismissal came on the same morning as another controversial moment at the Winter Olympics that saw Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych disqualified for wearing a helmet that paid tribute to athletes who have died during the war with Russia.

Heraskevych was warned he risked disqualification prior to his skeleton event, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reiterated to Heraskevych and the Ukrainian delegation that his helmet violated rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter, which states that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas”.

Heraskevych responded to the ban by claiming it was a victory for “Russian propaganda” and that the IOC had made a “terrible mistake”.