For Ukrainian athletes, the Paris Olympics are more than just sports
FILE - Gold medalist, Zhan Beleniuk of Ukraine, celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony for the men's 87kg Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in Chiba, Japan. An Associated Press analysis found Russia's war is making it increasingly difficult for Ukraine, once a post-Soviet sports power, to get those headline-capturing medals. Ukrainian performances began dipping after 2014, the year of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea.
Skater Oksana Baiul won Ukraine's first Olympic gold, at the 1994 Winter Games, just three years after Ukraine declared independence. The medal ceremony in Lillehammer, Norway, was delayed whileand Wladimir, the Olympic super-heavyweight champion in 1996 — were among other athletes who put the new nation on sport’s map.
While honing their bodies and skills for Paris, they have wrestled with their consciences. Athletes have had to explain to themselves and others why they are still competing when soldiers are dying and lives being ripped apart. Some are emerging from the journey with their priorities reordered and armed with new motivation to fight, through sport, for the broader national cause.
“I think everyone has these kinds of thoughts,” he said. “Many people among those whom I know are fighting, and some were killed.”“You sit in the bomb shelter for an hour, then come out for 15 minutes and start warming up and moving again. The alarm goes off again, and you go back to the bomb shelter,” Ryzhykova says. She mostly trains abroad as a result.
Vozniuk, who was 75, led the Dnipro sports school where Ryzhykova started track and field and where she still trains on trips home.
War And Unrest Sports Track And Field 2024 Paris Olympic Games Olympic Games World News General News Article 111738264
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