Many Ukrainian sportsmen mobilized for the war against the Russian invasion of their country, some going so far as to take up arms.
boxers
Vitali Klitschko, former world boxing champion, took off his Kiev mayor’s suit to organize the defense of his city and its 3 million inhabitants.
“I train all the time, I train as a former officer and head of territorial defense … I know how to shoot with almost any weapon,” he told AFP on 10 February.
His younger brother, Wladimir, also a former boxing champion, also enlisted as a reservist.
Former lightweight world champion Vasyl Lomachenko joined the territorial defense battalion at Belgorod-Dnistrovsky, near Odessa.
The 34-year-old boxer appeared in military uniform with a machine gun slung over his shoulder on Facebook.
Oleksandr Usyk, world heavyweight champion, also posed armed on the Instagram account of the Kharkiv boxing club with the caption: “Oleksandr Usyk has joined the territorial defense of the capital and Kiev region”.
Interviewed by CNN from the basement of his home near Kiev, he said he wants to “defend his home, his wife, his children and his loved ones”. “I don’t want to shoot, I don’t want to kill,” but in the event of an attack, he adds, “I will have no choice but to respond.”
Every voice matters. We see you and feel your support.
Urge your governments to provide Ukraine with more defensive weapons, ammunition, and economic support. Cut all political and business ties with Russia!
Tell us what country you are supporting us from ????#StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/dBQNxBn0Et
– Ukraine / Ukraine (@Ukraine) March 1, 2022
biathletes
Ukrainian biathletes withdrew from competing in the World Cup which takes place in March. On social media, Dmytro Pidruchnyi, the 2019 world pursuit champion, posted a photo in combat suit in Ternopil, western Ukraine, where he says he joined the National Guard.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the International Federation (IBU) said that a former young Ukrainian biathlete, Yevhen Malyshev, died this week serving in the Ukrainian army. He was 19 years old.
Tennis players
Sergei Stakhovsky, who was once the 31st player in the world rankings, also joined the “territorial resistance”. “I have no military experience. Only gun experience, in a private capacity,” the 36-year-old retired athlete said on Twitter. “I hope I don’t have to use a gun,” he told Britain’s Radio 4 on Tuesday.
He left his family in Hungary. “I don’t really know how I got here. I know it’s very difficult for my wife. My kids don’t know I’m here. They don’t understand war.”
Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, in a blue skirt and yellow blouse – the colors of her country – beat Russian Anastasia Potapova on Tuesday at the WTA tournament in Monterrey, Mexico. “Every award I win here will go to the army,” she said, very emotional, to applause from the audience.
“I am currently away from you, away from my loved ones, away from my people, but my heart is completely filled with you,” she had written the day before on Twitter. “I am Ukraine, we are Ukraine”.
She received support from Russian champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who expressed her “disagreement” with this war. “I’m not afraid to say my opinion. I’m against war and violence.”
Soccer players
Several players on the Ukrainian national team, including Oleksandr Zinchenko and Andriy Yarmolenko, called for “resistance” against the Russian invasion, in a video published by the Ukrainian Federation (UAF).
“We ask everyone in football to oppose Russian propaganda, to show and tell the truth about the war in Ukraine by any means possible”, released thirteen players from “Zbirna”.
Zinchenko (Manchester City), Yarmolenko (West Ham), Ruslan Malinovskyi (Atalanta Bergamo) or Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk) appear in the two-minute video, interspersed with footage of the conflict.
Several of these internationals raised 500,000 euros for the Ukrainian armed forces.
Moldovan club Sheriff Tiraspol’s Ukrainian coach Yuriy Vernydub has returned to his country to help defend him.
And Dynamo Moscow’s Ukrainian assistant coach Andriy Voronin resigned and left for Germany. He told German newspaper Bild that he “would no longer be able to work in the country that is bombing (his) homeland”.
Words that recall those of Ivica Osim, son of Sarajevo, to explain his resignation from the position of coach of Yugoslavia in 1992.
Andriy Shevchenko, ex-atacante do Dynamo Kiev, do Milan and former Ukraine coach, he is very active on social media where he posts daily messages of support for his country. The 2004 Ballon d’Or, which he played for Chelsea at the end of his career, he participated in a demonstration last Sunday in London, where he posed for a photo with one of his children and the Ukrainian flag on his back.
On Tuesday night, before the first leg of the Coppa Italia between Milan and Inter (0-0), the former Rossoneri star appeared in a video message, draped in yellow and blue, and asked for peace, to the applause of San Siro. After retiring from sport, Shevchenko tried politics but failed to become a member of Ukraine’s parliament in 2012.
athletes
More discreetly, Pole Vault legend Sergei Bubka, president of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOC), tweeted the request to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from international sports competition launched on Monday by the International Olympic Committee.
In an earlier message, on the third day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the first man to cross a 6-meter bar thanked the world for messages of support. “War must end, peace and humanity must prevail,” he added.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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