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The Olympic medals have come in a flurry for Ukraine in recent days: golds at the track and on the fencing piste, a silver in gymnastics, two other bronzes.
“It’s a time to celebrate and think not about the war,” Mykhailo Kokhan, 23, a member of Ukraine’s national guard, said after winning a bronze in the men’s hammer throw on Sunday.
The Paris Games have been a welcome respite for a country where at least one bakery sells pastries shaped like anti-tank obstacles and there is now deep uncertainty over the nation’s sporting future.
Ukraine’s 140 Olympians have shown remarkable perseverance since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, preparing for the Paris Games either in other, safer nations, or at home to the grim soundtrack of air-raid alerts and missile attacks. Some high jumpers trained by flashlight during power outages. Another improvised his weight lifting by attaching car tires to a metal rod.
But no quick end to the war is evident. And once the Paris Games end on Sunday, Ukrainian officials will be left to try to repair and sustain the country’s ravaged sports system as they look ahead to participating in the Winter and Summer Olympics, as well as other international competitions, over the next decade.
“It’s hard to say a number, but we understand that Ukraine lost its next generation of athletes because many children left,” Vadym Gutzeit, 52, the president of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee, said in an interview in June in Kyiv.
