As the Olympics near, Ukraine mourns athletes lost to war
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STORY: 22-year-old Ukrainian border guard Stanislav Hulenkov was a rising judo star. But his dream was destroyed by war. He was killed defending his country against Russia's full scale invasion. His mother Iryna told Reuters he was determined to succeed but first he wanted to serve his country. “All the conventions, all the competitions took a backseat because of the war. He had to learn how to hold a rifle, shoot a grenade launcher, train at a shooting range, dig trenches. The focus was on the war and preparation for it.” Before the war, Hulenkov had been competing for a spot on Ukraine's national team. As the Summer Olympics opens in Paris this week, Ukraine is mourning athletes like Hulenkov whose sporting promise was cut short as the conflict grinds towards its 30th month. At least 488 Ukrainian athletes and trainers have been killed since 2022, Around two dozen who had been European or world champions in their discipline, according to a sports ministry spokesman. Hulenkov's close friend and training partner Vadym Chernov tried to convince him to apply for leave from the military to attend the Ukraine Cup but he refused. “I said, ‘Stas, I still have your name tag’, and he said, ‘You can give it back later, when you have the time.’ And it so happened that I couldn’t give this name tag back to him. Now this name tag travels to every competition with me. This is such a memento. As if he also travels to competitions with me.” Despite threats to boycott the Games, Kyiv is sending 140 athletes and 95 coaches, a smaller delegation than in peacetime. They've trained amid regular Russian air strikes that have ravaged critical infrastructure and plunged cities across Ukraine into darkness. Athletes from Russia, and Belarus which allowed Moscow to use its territory to launch its invasion, are participating in the Games as neutrals, barred from singing anthems or displaying flags and emblems.
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