When 9,000 athletes take to the Seine on Saturday morning (Eastern Summer Time), one of the biggest cheers will be when the Ukrainian flag appears.
Ukraine is sending its smallest-ever team to the Olympics and has released a horrifying death toll from Russia’s invasion of its country.
Despite preparations being severely disrupted, with some athletes leaving Ukraine, others being killed, and training facilities destroyed by the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, Ukraine is still sending a team of 143 athletes to Paris.
“We are proud of our team, the men and women who, despite this war of aggression, managed to prepare for the Olympics and show the spirit of all Ukrainians,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.
“They have our will to win and the Ukrainian character.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, said on social media on Friday that the war had claimed the lives of 487 Ukrainian athletes.
Many of the athletes who managed to qualify for the Olympics had to train far from Ukraine to escape the war and were unable to see their families.
The sporting events recorded the highest number of Ukrainian participants: 25, while in badminton there was only one representative, 20-year-old Polina Buhrova.
“When we read the news, we feel very upset,” Buhrova told the AP.
“But it's also our power and our chance to show how strong we are, that we are here and that we will fight until the end.”
French President Emmanuel Macron has been one of Ukraine's biggest and most powerful supporters, promising “unconditional support” and military aid.
France's policy of direct opposition to Russia has been successful in the country and Ukrainian athletes will be among those who steal the show.
Due to the anti-Kremlin stance, there is a high probability of cyber attacks on the Olympic host nation.
For months, French security forces have been raising the alarm about the risk of attacks aimed at destabilizing the Games.
Suspicion will fall on Russia, whose team was banned from Paris in response to the invasion.
Ukrainian Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi says that “the Russians wanted his country to cease to exist,” but instead, more than two years after the invasion, “the opposite happened” at the Paris Olympics.
“Ukrainians are here, Ukraine is participating in the Olympics,” he said on the eve of the opening ceremony.
Bidnyi, who replaced Vadym Gutzeit as sports minister last November, said the biggest sporting spectacle spread over two weeks in Paris and broadcast around the world would be for Ukraine “primarily a big screen for the world.”
“We must remind the world that Ukraine exists, is fighting and is capable of winning.
“Under the coordination of the Office of the President of Ukraine, we are planning a large-scale campaign to better explain that the very fact that we are performing under the Ukrainian flag in Paris is a great demonstration of willpower.”
Ukraine won 19 medals in Tokyo in 2021, but Bidnyi says that this year, given the very different circumstances, the bar was different.
“We believe in every Ukrainian athlete and want to win all the medals,” said the 44-year-old bodybuilder.
“But the truth is broader: every Ukrainian athlete at the Olympics is a hero who is already a winner.
“At the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, few believed we would resist.
“But we did it, the Ukrainian defenders stopped the Kremlin's assault.”
Bidnyi said he couldn't be prouder that the athletes managed to maintain enough focus to qualify for Paris in their respective sports.
“Ukrainian athletes have proudly overcome the incredible hardships caused by the Russian war,” he said.
“The killing of loved ones, the destruction of homes and stadiums, endless relocations – these are challenges that all Ukrainians, especially athletes, constantly face.”
Ukrainian athletes, coaches and the country’s sports infrastructure have not been spared from the destruction wrought by Russia since its troops invaded the country in February 2022.
Ukraine has previously hosted the European Football Championship, until 2012.
“It is true that sports infrastructure has suffered significant losses,” he said.
“The Russians have damaged and destroyed more than 500 sports facilities, including 15 Olympic training bases across the country.
“But we can rebuild the sports infrastructure. However, we will never be able to bring back the killed athletes.”
Bidnyi said he fears waking up and discovering new data on dead and injured athletes and coaches.
“Every morning I get an SMS with updates on how many Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed by the Russians,” he said.
“Almost every day, this number increases. So far, the Russians have killed 488 Ukrainian athletes and coaches.
“Among them are dozens of world and European champions, participants in previous Olympics, who were now supposed to be in Paris but were killed by Russia.”
Those who managed to get to Paris did so under the most difficult circumstances, says Bidnyi.
“Ukrainian rower Anastasia Rybychok has lost her home and training base in Kherson,” he said.
“They were first bombed by the Russians and then flooded after the Russians blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.
“Due to the Russian terror, we have had power cuts. Our athletes have to train in gyms without air conditioning or ventilation simply because there is no electricity.
“Many Ukrainian athletes have lost loved ones due to the war.”
Bidnyi said he was pleased that, under constant pressure from his office and others, the International Olympic Committee had significantly limited the number of Russians and Belarusians competing in Paris and ordered them to compete under a neutral flag.
They are prohibited from participating in the opening ceremony.
Russia sent a team of 330 people to Tokyo, “and today there will be a maximum of 15 people without a state, without a flag, without an anthem, without any possibility of making it clear where they come from.”
— with AFP
