Illustration: #OlehGryshchenko
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Those who for many years represented Ukraine and won prizes at international competitions went today to defend the country with weapons in their hands. Boxing gloves, tennis rackets, basketballs, biathlon rifles and football boots have been replaced by real rifles.
High-profile examples were the decisions of world boxing champions Oleksandr Usyk and Vasyl Lomachenko to enter the Territorial Defense Forces. Usyk had stayed there for a month and at the end of March decided to leave Ukraine to prepare for a rematch with Anthony Joshua. At the same time, Lomachenko gave up matches and continues to serve in the national defense of his native Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in Odesa Oblast.
Anastasiia Merkushina, a biathlete in the Ukrainian national team, serves as a senior lieutenant in the border troops. The athlete says that now Ukraine has become the border between peace and war. Thus, Anastasiia serves precisely on the border between good and evil, democracy and dictatorship.
Many other athletes can be found today in the Ukrainian army: the national women's team's coach, football players and referees, runners and wrestlers.
Unfortunately, there are already losses among athletes in the army. Andrii Kovtenko, a powerlifter, died in the battles near Kharkiv in May. Nazar Makarenko, a Ukrainian kickboxing champion, was only 25 years old at the time of his death. Another champion of Ukraine in kickboxing and world champion in Thai boxing, Oleksiy Yanin, died fighting for Mariupol. Serhiy Karnaukhov, a master of sports in powerlifting, had served as the reconnaissance commander of the 93rd Independent Kholodnyi Yar Mechanized Brigade and was killed in June. And this list of athletes who were supposed to compete for the first places at championships but instead were forced to go to war against the Russian army is far from complete.