Susana Girón: INVICTUS UKRAINE

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Ruslan Mezentsev (born 1981, Kropyvnytskyi) won a silver medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics in the Men's Artistic Gymnastics Team event. When the war began, he decided to auction off his Olympic medal and donate the entire proceeds to the Ukrainian army, which he joined after being called up in the spring of 2023. He is now part of the mechanized troops fighting in the Donetsk region. "My reward was participating in the Olympics; the impact my medal has left is more meaningful to me than keeping it physically. After all, it's just metal, and at that time, I donated the most valuable thing I had, which was that medal. I got a little over €10,000 for it, and at the time, I had almost no savings." Ruslan had opened his gym in the city of Poltava, where he trained fitness and physical conditioning, but he no longer wanted anything to do with high-level sports. "There is no parallel between fighting and competing. Sports gave me a strong physical condition, but it also caused me significant injuries and lasting effects that limit my physical and military life. There is a lot of pressure in both the front lines and in competition, but it is different. The only thing that has helped me from my sports career in the war has been my psychological resilience: I can control my emotions better in combat. Nothing else." "All my teammates from the Olympic team left the country before the war and now work as coaches abroad. None of them remain in Ukraine. I barely keep in touch with any of them. We no longer share any common interests, and each has their own path. They have provided me with some help to cover some of the economic needs we soldiers face and that we sometimes can't meet." "Winning that Olympic medal was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful moments of my life. But being an elite athlete has also given me the hardest moments of my life; the demands of competition are inhumane due to the pressure you are under. What scares me most about the war is that I can't see the enemy. In sports, you can put a face to your opponent, but in war, you don't see your adversary; you don't see where the projectiles are coming from. It's not about physical strength or discipline; you simply shoot without seeing. Our advantage in this war is that we are defending the truth and our land, that the future of our families rests on our shoulders. The enemy's advantage is that they have more soldiers and more weapons. We can only defend ourselves under these conditions."

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Nina Lemesh, 51, is the head of the Regional Biathlon Federation in Chernihiv. She herself trained and lived at the Chernihiv biathlon base for more than 10 years. During her time as an athlete, she became a European Champion (2006) and won three medals in World Championships and six medals in European Championships. She now represents the National Olympic Committee. Nina Lemesh searches among the ruins of the Olympic base for some of the sports trophies won by the many athletes who trained there. For her, it is extremely difficult to see this devastation at the place that was her training ground for so many years. She is calling for international help to restore their lives to what they were before the war. At the Chernihiv Olympic Biathlon Center, over 300 athletes trained before the war, including world and Olympic champions. Between March 16 and 18, 2022, the base was besieged and destroyed by Russian troops, resulting in a heavy loss of life. Today, the base manages to remain active thanks to the provision of prefabricated houses where some athletes can stay overnight and train. A significant effort was needed to clear and deactivate mines and explosives left in the training area. The base is now used for training and teaching biathlon to youth schools; about 200 children are currently learning biathlon there since all professional athletes now train elsewhere. Former athlete Igor Iakymenko is now the director of the facilities, which they dream of rebuilding as soon as possible, although they are aware that the country currently has other priorities.

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Anastassia Superson (Kiev, 18 años). Anastasiia trains morning and evening, six days a week. During the approximately 45-minute journey from her home in southwest Kiev to the gym, she passes through three military checkpoints every day, but she never takes her eyes off her mobile phone, where she plays online games with her friends. She is one of the great talents of Ukrainian judo. When the war began, she, along with six companions, flfled to Poland, where she stayed for several months. Unable to train properly, she moved to the high-performance judo center run by the Spaniard Sugoi Uriarte in Valencia. There, she prepared for months for the under-19 world championship, which she ultimately won. However, despite all the comforts and the high level of facilities and training, she has decided to return to live in Ukraine, with her family on the outskirts of Kiev. “Here, I have my whole life, my friends. I can train well, and I handle the pressure of the war better being here. In Spain, I was always worried about my family, and not seeing them, I was always afraid that something might happen to them without me knowing. Being here gives me more tranquility, stability... emotionally, I manage better. Despite the alarms, for me, calmness is being here.”

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Antonina Sergienko and her husband Anatolii are reviewing old photos of their son Oleksandr during his time as a member of the national rowing team. He was born in Kiev on Christmas Day in 1991. During his university years at the Faculty of Instrumentation, he also developed a promising career in the national rowing team. Recognized as a “Master of Sport” for his achievements in rowing, he was deeply in love with Ukraine and was a great researcher and student of Ukrainian history. One of his dreams was to defend his doctoral thesis, the second university degree he was pursuing. He had military training and was called up on the first day of the war.

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Antonina Sergienko and her husband Anatolii are reviewing old photos and medals won of their son Oleksandr during his time as a member of the national rowing team. He was born in Kiev on Christmas Day in 1991. During his university years at the Faculty of Instrumentation, he also developed a promising career in the national rowing team. Recognized as a “Master of Sport” for his achievements in rowing, he was deeply in love with Ukraine and was a great researcher and student of Ukrainian history. One of his dreams was to defend his doctoral thesis, the second university degree he was pursuing. He had military training and was called up on the first day of the war.

City of Sports Irpin. Oblast de Kiev. March 2024.

City of Sports Irpin. Oblast de Kiev. March 2024.

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Pista de atletismo en el estadio de la Universidad Estatal de Tax. Irpin, Kiev Oblast. © Susana Girón

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MEmber of Ukrainian athletics national team training at Koncha Zaspa Olympic Center. The olympic sentence: citiuus, altius, fortius (Faster, higher, stronger) writtten in the background wall.

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Ukrainian wheelchair basketball team INVICTUS GAMES during a training session at the KievBasket sports hall. Kiev.

Vadym Hilchuk (2001. Chernivtsi Oblast). TRainign at Olympic Center in Kiev. Border soldier since 2020, Vadym was injured and lost both legs on September 19, 2023, near Bakhmut during a mortar attack, which happened to be his birthday. When it occurred, he was in a small group of 6 soldiers, and it was his comrades who applied a tourniquet on the spot and evacuated him to Kalinka (Donetsk area), then to Dnipro and later to Kiev. He was in a coma for 4 days and feels fortunate because despite everything, he was able to survive. Vadym had always been an amateur athlete and started training out of necessity to recover from his injuries. A friend told him about the possibility of joining the Paralympic sports community, and he didn’t hesitate to start training: archery, wheelchair volleyball, and indoor rowing. In these three disciplines, he will compete in the upcoming INVICTUS GAMES in the USA. For about 7 months, he has been receiving financial assistance from the Government of Ukraine, although he is still in the process of obtaining a permanent pension. His focus is now solely on competing and training, as it is the incentive that keeps him motivated: “Sport stimulates me to act and give my best every day, not to dwell on what happened. It’s also allowing me to meet new friends and wonderful people.”

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Olympic athletes from the Ukrainian national boxing team tr training at the Koncha Zaspa Olympic Center during their preparation for the Olympic qualififier in Milan. Kiev, Ukraine.

City of Sports Irpin. Oblast de Kiev. March 2024.

City of Sports Irpin. Oblast de Kiev. March 2024.

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Alexander Boholutskiy (Jerson). Coach of the national Under-23 rowing team, living in a house 70 km from Kiev thanks to the solidarity of a colleague. Alexander lived in Jerson when the war began. He managed to move his family to a neighboring safe town, but 12 of his athletes, along with 22 athletes from another coach, were trapped in the occupied zone. “I couldn’t leave them there. For a month and a half, I clandestinely organized a small infrastructure through Telegram and social media to try to get them out of the occupied territory using routes that avoided main roads. I only had a 10% chance of getting them out; it was a huge risk, and I was under a lot of tension. But I felt the responsibility to do something; the city was almost destroyed, bombs were falling every day, and something had to be done. I also managed to save my dogs and a boat engine that I later used for training in Kiev.” Alexander, his family, and all his athletes (except for 3) made it to Kiev. He managed to arrange for them to be sent to a safe place in the Czech Republic. Over time, they all returned and resumed their training in Kiev. Alexander and Tatiana, his wife, sought to start a new life from scratch. “I guess you could call it Karma. We had nowhere to live in Kiev and were a bit desperate. A colleague heard about how I rescued those kids. Then she offffered me the opportunity to live rent-free in a half-built countryside house 70 km from Kiev. It’s the house where we’ve been living for the past two years.”

National Under-23 Rowing Team. Koncha-Zaspa. Kiev.

National Under-23 Rowing Team. Koncha-Zaspa. Kiev.

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Ukrainian national rhythmic g gymnasts preparing for their qualifification for the Paris Olympics. Koncha-Zaspa Olympic Center. Kiev. 20th February 2024