Ukraine Strives to Keep Memory of Athletes Who Died Fighting Ahead of Paris Olympics

This year’s Olympic Games in Paris features the smallest Ukrainian delegation in the history of the Olympics’ summer games - with only 140 athletes participating.

According to a British parliamentary press release on July 24, more than 487 Ukrainian athletes, including past and aspiring Olympians, have been killed since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Among them are Stanislav Hulenkov, a 22-year-old judoka who died defending Ukraine in the Donetsk region, and Anastasiia Ihnatenko, an acrobatic gymnastics coach who died alongside her husband and their 18-month-old son in a Russian missile strike, and many others.

As the July 24 opening of this year’s Olympics approached, several hundred people, including many Ukrainians, took to the streets of the French capital on July 13 to honor those Ukrainian athletes who were deprived of the chance of participating in the Olympics – or any other competitions as a result of Putin’s so-called “special military operation.”

“These athletes were killed at a time when they could have been training to be chosen for the Olympic Games. That is significant. Russia did not give them the choice to train and go to Paris. That is the sad part,” Volodymyr Kogutyak, vice president of the French Ukrainian association, told AP News.

Here are the stories of some of those who have been lost.

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Oleksandr Pielieshenko

Pielieshenko, born in 1994 in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, was a weightlifter who died defending Ukraine in May this year, becoming the first Olympian to die while fighting.

Pielieshenko was the 2016 and 2017 European Champion and represented the country in the 2016 Rio Olympics, finishing fourth in the 85 kg light-heavyweight category.

“It is with great sadness that we inform you that today the heart of the honored master of sports of Ukraine, two-time European weightlifting champion in, Oleksandr Pielieshenko, has stopped beating. We express our deepest condolences to the family and everyone who knew Oleksandr!” the Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation said in its May announcement.

Serhiy Pronevych

Pronevych, from Ukraine’s Sumy region, was a marathon runner known completing the 42-kilometer race in full military gear.

A television interview by local news outlet Suspilne Sumy saw his mother highlighting the athlete’s medals and diplomas that he earned over the years around the house, as well as the handicrafts he made as a hobby – all that remained for his mother after he had been killed in the opening days of the invasion.

According to locals, Pronevych disappeared while serving as a volunteer with a local territorial defense unit. His body showing clear signs of torture was later discovered.

“He is said to have been kept in the basement of the fire station, and tortured there because handcuff marks were visible on his hands,” his mother recalled.

Stanislav Hulenkov

Hulenkov, born in 2000 in Luhansk, was a junior division judoka who won multiple competitions in Europe and Ukraine. He joined the border guards in 2021, before the full-scale invasion and died near Novokalynove in the Donetsk region in April 2023.

“Sad news has reached the Ukrainian judo family. Stanislav Hulenkov, a 22-year-old master of sports of Ukraine in judo, winner of the European Cup among juniors, multiple winner of the national championships among cadets and youth, gave his life defending our country from the Russian invaders,” read a statement from the Judo Federation of Ukraine.

Vadym Chernov, Hulenkov’s close friend and judo partner, told Reuters that he’s now carrying Hulenkov’s name tag with him to judo events.

“For me, it’s a reminder that he’s always… traveling with me to competitions,” he said

Anastasiia Ihnatenko

Ihnatenko was an acrobatic gymnastics coach who died in a Russian missile strike in Dnipro on January 14, 2023, alongside her husband and 18-month-old son.

Ihnatenko was a multiple champion at both the Zaporizhzhia regional and national levels. She also worked as a judge in sports acrobatics and a coach at the national level.

She worked as a trainer in Dnipro, whose students included multiple champions and prize-winners of regional competitions, finalists of the All-Ukrainian competitions, and candidates for masters of sports.

She relocated to Dnipro from Tokmak, a town in the Zaporizhzhia region that fell under Russian occupation. She and her family moved into the apartment a week before it was struck by a missile in January 2023.

“Caring, attentive, disciplined, purposeful. Very responsible. As a trainer, she had the knowledge and methods to train young and middle-aged children. Anastasiia was a very reliable person and thus made people feel calm,” her colleague said following her death.

Ukrainians have created a dedicated site called “SPORT ANGELS – Requiem for the Ukrainian athletes who died” to commemorate those sportsmen and women who perished as a result of Russia’s invasion.