Olympics controversy
IOC bans German athlete from wearing her shoes
02/02/2026 – 5:08 p.mReading time: 1 min.
Josephine Schlörb is not allowed to wear her speed skating shoes at the Olympics. The athlete had to develop a new design in order to be able to start.
Speed skater Josephine Schlörb is not allowed to compete in her usual shoes at the Winter Olympics in Milan. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it banned her from using them because they were printed with political messages.
“I had a lot of statements printed on my old custom-made shoe. For example: Hate is not an opinion. Discrimination is a crime,” said Schlörb to the “Sächsische Zeitung”. The inscriptions violate Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which prohibits political statements during competition. Schlörb contacted the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) early on to clarify the situation.
First, Schlörb tried to make the inscriptions unrecognizable. But this version was also rejected by the IOC because there could be questions about what was originally on the shoes. To ensure participation in the games, Schlörb came up with a new design. The world map made of the word “respect” in different colors was finally accepted by the IOC.
She put a lot of work into creating it and created an Excel spreadsheet to document the translations of the word “respect” in different languages and to identify the sources of the translations. “I really wanted to be on the safe side,” said the athlete. Despite the challenges, Schlörb loves her new custom-made shoes and is ready to fight for the medals in the team pursuit with her colleagues Lea Sophie Scholz and Josie Hofmann.
