“At that moment, I couldn’t think anything about sport,” Ryzhykova stated. “Then I understood the war won’t end tomorrow or next week. I started thinking about what I could do. Some of my teammates, some of my friends told me I should continue my sports career. I understood we could speak and do interviews. We could talk about war, and people should know they can help us and support us. People should know the truth about the situation in Ukraine.”
On Tuesday, Ryzhykova ran as soon as across the Hayward Field oval and cleared 10 hurdles on the track and field world championships, carrying a yellow-and-blue ribbon in her hair and yellow-and-blue make-up on her eyes. She is one in all 22 Ukrainian athletes who’re competing in Eugene after 5 months of worrying for family members, shifting across the world to proceed coaching and overcoming unthinkable circumstances.
On consecutive nights, two Ukrainian excessive jumpers captured medals. Andriy Protsenko gained bronze Monday, simply months after he moved from the besieged metropolis of Kherson to a rural village with out coaching tools. He scrounged for provides, turning an iron bar and two tires right into a barbell for squatting.
“There was no high jumping, but I found the possibility to run,” he stated. “It was not so difficult to find something to create the equipment. The main thing was to find the motivation to train — but fortunately I could do it.”
“After that, I understand that anything is possible,” Ryzhykova stated. “Andriy trained for one month in an occupied city. To go out there with the risk of his life and his family and win a bronze medal, it was so amazing. I was almost crying.”
Shortly earlier than she certified for the world championships, excessive jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh noticed two rockets destroy a constructing within the metropolis middle close to the place she lives. People she knew survived however suffered wounds. On Tuesday, after she leaped 2.02 meters (6 ft 7½ inches), Mahuchikh regarded on the silver medal hanging round her neck.
“For me,” she stated, “it’s gold.”
Over the previous 5 months, Ukrainian athletes have unfold out throughout the world to proceed coaching, shifting to Portugal, Turkey, Poland and elsewhere. Hurdler Viktoriya Tkachuk helped her dad and mom transfer from a very harmful space simply north of Kyiv however needed to depart them behind when she relocated to Portugal and Turkey.
“It was so hard for me,” Tkachuk stated. “I’m so happy now they’re [in] a safe place.” She paused. “Almost a safe place.”
The compelled motion led the Athletics Integrity Unit, the drug testing arm of world track and field, to offer a waiver for one portion of its program. Athletes usually are below strict obligation to share their location and be ready for random checks. The AIU granted exemptions to seven Ukrainians, it introduced final week.
World Athletics, track and field’s governing physique, grew to become one of many first sports activities organizations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes in February. President Sebastian Coe stated it could be “inconceivable” to permit “two aggressor nations who walked into an independent state” to compete whereas Ukrainians confronted “extremely challenging” circumstances to qualify, a sentiment Ukrainian athletes agreed with.
“We won’t compete with murderers,” Ryzhykova stated. “If they keep silent, they support their government. It’s impossible in the real world to compete with people like them.”
“Every sportsman from Russia has a chance to say something,” Tkachuk stated. “No one said anything, even in a personal message. They are not supporting us. They are not supporting Ukraine. So it means they support [President Vladimir] Putin and everything that Russia is doing with Ukraine now.”
Crowds at Hayward Field have embraced Ukrainian athletes. Fans roared Tuesday evening every time Mahuchikh and Iryna Gerashchenko cleared a bar. “I realized it’s not only because I am the best,” Gerashchenko, who set a private finest as she completed fourth, stated by way of an interpreter. “It’s because I am from Ukraine. It means these people support our really strong nation.”
Ukrainian athletes have embraced not solely the prospect to compete but additionally the chance to speak with a world viewers. They have unfailingly stopped within the blended zone, the mazelike space the place athletes converse with reporters, to share their experiences and opinions.
“It’s important people see us, that we are from Ukraine,” Ryzhykova stated. “I want to tell that we are highly motivated here, not just because we are representing our country. Recently, the president from our federation came from the front. He is in the army. He came here and told us our army boys and girls who are there, they’re checking the news and reading the sports news. And they are waiting for good news from us.”
The world championships present a respite for Ukrainian athletes. The struggle rages close to their associates and households. Some will journey to different worldwide competitions. Some will return dwelling, and others will return to international locations they’ve quickly adopted. The struggle isn’t removed from their minds — besides within the fleeting moments when they’re working across the track or leaping over the bar.
“I feel normal just when I run,” Ryzhykova stated. “I’m not thinking about anything. I’m just concentrating on my hurdles and my lane. And I’m fighting with time, with myself.
“In this moment, I feel free. I feel free in my mind. I’m just doing my job.”