The path to the 2024 Paris Olympics for Ukrainian athletes is clouded by war, anger and pain. Russian bombardments have wrecked training venues. Air raids disrupt training sessions. Athletes have lost family members and friends.
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian diver Stanislav Oliferchyk proudly bears the name of his late grandfather, who died in brutalized Mariupol. Russia's troops turned the Ukrainian port city into a killing zone in the process of capturing it. The elder Stanislav could no longer get the cancer treatment he needed in the ruins, his grandson says. He was 74 when he died last October.
People are also reading… “I’m angry most of the time. I just can’t stand it anymore when shelling happens,” said the 26-year-old Oliferchyk, a European champion in 3-meter mixed synchronized diving in 2019. “I want Russia to let us live in peace and stay away from us.” Sisters Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva — who won Olympic bronze in artistic swimming's team competition at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 — are among those who say they'd have to boycott.
Completing each other's sentences, the Ukrainian twins added: “Our moral feelings don't allow us to stand near ... these people.” Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | Omny Studio Having to train in the midst of war also puts Ukraine's Olympic hopefuls at a disadvantage. Russian strikes have destroyed training venues. Air raids disrupt training sessions. Athletes have lost family members and friends, or are consumed by worries that they will.
“Bach asked one of the cyclists how she was doing,” the minister recounted. “She started crying. He asked why. She said that day they attacked her city, where her parents were, and she was very nervous."Ukraine's artistic swim team, including the Aleksiiva sisters, used to train in the Lokomotiv sports center in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city.
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