2024 has become very difficult for many Ukrainians who, despite the war, have learned to live on and win. And not just win, but set incredible world records, like Yaroslava Maguchikh or Ekaterina Sadurskaya, rebel against pro-Russian tyranny and work miracles at the Olympics, like Olga Kharlan, or beat the strongest tennis players and remind millions of the horrors of the war that continues in our country, like.
Olga KHARLAN. In light of the last incredibly difficult years, Olga Kharlan became not only the main multi-medalist of Ukraine at the Olympics, having won a total of six Games awards, but a real symbol of our country and its struggle and the heroine of her nation. After all, the incredible history of Paris began not in July on the tracks of the Grand Palais, but at the World Fencing Championships in Milan 2023, a qualifier for the Games in the capital of France and where Harlan was disqualified for refusing to shake hands with her opponent from a terrorist country.
And only pressure from the sports community and the whole of Ukraine forced the leaders of the international federation, which was ruled by the Russian oligarch Usmanov for many years, to hush up this scandalous removal of Olga. IOC President Thomas Bach even granted the titled saber fencer a personal license to Paris 2024. And for good reason, because the performance of Harlan and her teammates at the Games turned into a real miracle.
Yes, in the capital of France Olga was never able to reach such a coveted personal “gold”, but, of course, she became the heroine of the competition. The way she rose like a Phoenix from the ashes in her bronze bout with Korea's Choi Sebin, losing 5:11! The spectators in the stands of the Grand Palais simply went crazy and chanted “Olga! Olga! "
And only after receiving this “bronze”, which is really worth its weight in “gold”, the Nikolaev saber fencer admitted that after the failure at the 2020 Olympics she was fighting her own demons. Tokyo was afraid of being eliminated in the first round, but knew that it would. not only for ourselves, but also for the whole of Ukraine, for the guys and girls who protect us at the front.
I understand that I was at the Olympics and felt all the jitters and all the horror that was before the competition. I was afraid that I would lose the first fight, like I did in Tokyo. It's your fears and traumas that we're going through. I really had. trauma after Tokyo and I'm going through it. And this shows that I am Ukrainian, that I am strong. I did it, I can’t even explain it,” Harlan will later say, to whom the audience in Paris gave a standing ovation.
“Bronze” Kharlan became the first award for the Ukrainian national team in Paris 2024 and seemed to find fault with some invisible obstacle for our athletes. And then Olga and her team also opened the account for the “blue-yellows” gold medals in France.
Everyone who was present in the Grand Palais hall that day experienced the frantic energy emanating from Harlan and her setting. On August 3, the Ukrainian rivals had no chance, no matter who stood in front of her on the track. In the eyes of the Nikolaev saber fencer there was such a thirst for victory, such stubbornness and perseverance that she could demolish anyone who stood in her way. Before the last duel in the final with South Korea, the Ukrainians were losing 37:40, but after Olga left they won 45:42.
“The last fight I just fencing, before these Olympic Games I told myself that I would just enjoy them. And I enjoyed it. Some things worked out and some didn’t, but I just went there – I wasn’t! What to do? We already have silver, and now we can do something incredible and, being in 17th place in the ranking at the beginning of qualifying, win the Olympics,” said Harlan.
Of course, nothing would have happened without the team, without Harlan’s friends - Alina Komashchuk, Elena Kravatskaya and Yulia Bakastova, who during preparation moved to Italy, where Olga now lives and trains. But the Olympic champion made a lot of efforts to bring everyone together. The most difficult thing was to return Komashchuk to the track, who after a full-scale war decided to leave the sport.
Yaroslav MOGUCHIKH. 2024 was incredibly successful for the phenomenal Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Maguchikh - victory at the stages and in the finals of the Diamond League, “gold” at the European Championships, which she could have missed due to injury, but took a risk and performed. And two weeks before the start of the Games in Paris, a Ukrainian flew over the bar at a height of 2.10 meters and broke a world record that had stood for 37 years!
The 22-year-old Dnepryanka lacked only the title of Olympic champion to complete her collection, and she achieved her goal in Paris, winning gold in the fight against the Australian Nicola Olislagers. Although Yaroslava herself admitted that she primarily fights with the bar and herself, and not with her rivals.
After the victory, Maguchikh’s journey from the exit from the stadium bowl to the mix zone definitely took more than an hour, because during the course of the move she constantly stopped to comment to accredited TV channels. Yaroslav probably also spent as much or a little less talking into a voice recorder, both in Ukrainian and English.. And then I went to the press conference.
In general, the bright winner of Paris 2024, who simply went crazy with the fans in the stands, gave out so many interviews in France that it is perhaps difficult to say for sure where the load is greater - in the sector during the jumps or after, under the gun of cameras and surrounded. The foreign press was interested in everything - from the sleeping bag that Yaroslav uses during competitions to the war in Ukraine.
And Maguchikh, like her teammate and bronze medalist of the 2024 Olympics Irina Gerashchenko, did not tire of reminding the world at every competition what was really happening in Ukraine, in particular while the sports festival continued in the arenas and streets of Paris.
" And this gives Ukrainian athletes the opportunity to talk about our situation, about the war in Ukraine, because in fact we want peace. Unfortunately, this is impossible even during the Olympics, because Russia does not stop" their attacks on my hometown and other cities of Ukraine. region. It’s very difficult, but we fight on every field,” said Maguchikh.
At the age of 22, Maguchikh won every competition on our planet, and also updated Stefka Kostadinova’s world record, which was considered eternal.. But Yaroslava doesn’t think that 2.10 meters is her limit. In addition, after the Olympics, Yaroslava managed to work on the diplomatic front, visiting, together with the Minister of Sports Matvey Bedny, an international conference in Porto.
“Firstly, we need to talk about the events - that shelling continues and that people are dying here. Secondly, we must remind you that the future of our sport, the future of our children, is being destroyed. Since now they do not have the opportunity to come and calmly train and move towards their goal, move towards Olympic medals. us Maguchikh.
Lyudmila KICHENOK. In 2024, Lyudmila Kichenok achieved for the second time what our singles tennis players could not - she won the Grand Slam tournament.. True, in 2023 she took the main Wimbledon trophy in mixed doubles, and last year she became the US Open champion in doubles with Jelena Ostapenko.
The native of Dnepr was one step away from the trophy at the beginning of 2024, when she played in the final of the Australian Open, but then the couple fell a little short. Lyudmila also added three WTA titles to the trophy from the USA. And the Ukrainian woman’s successes affected her position in the world rankings. At the end of September, Kichenok repeated the national record - third place in the WTA doubles ranking.
And in not one of her speeches on or off the court did Lyudmila forget to remember her homeland, talk about the terrible times for Ukraine and the courage of its defenders.
“Now every time I step on the court, every time I win, I want to dedicate my victories to the Ukrainian people who are fighting hard for our freedom right now. I hope that with this I can cheer them up a little. My heart is with them,” Kichenok said after winning the US Open.
It is interesting that due to such a successful performance at the US Open, the Dnipro tennis player had to postpone her own wedding with her boyfriend Stas Khmarsky. And this story quickly spread across the world media, arousing even greater interest in the Ukrainian woman..
" And when we arrived in New York, we decided that we would do it here. My boyfriend Stas found a place here and just signed up for Wednesday. When he told me about it. , I answered: “Okay, let’s go,” the Ukrainian explained. But I wasn’t too upset, because the occasion was very worthy.
Ekaterina Sadurskaya. In 2024, the achievements of world freediving star Ekaterina Sadurskaya, a former successful synchronized swimmer who switched to scuba diving and, holding her breath, without scuba diving, dives to a seemingly unrealistic depth for humans of 84 meters and sets.
The end of last year turned out to be surprisingly effective for the Ukrainian athlete, when in a little more than a month she twice updated the record in the CNF discipline - “constant weight without fins”. This first happened in October at the World Championships in Greece, where Ekaterina won gold, covering a record 80 meters.
Ekaterina also won the free diving with a score of 95 m and became the world champion in this discipline for the third time.. Also, to two gold medals, world and national records, the 32-year-old Ukrainian added a bronze award in the final discipline of the competition, “bilast diving.”.
“Special thanks to our defenders who give their lives in the fight for Ukraine, and we can do everything to help them and remind the world what kind of war is still going on and we need support so that peace comes as quickly as possible. “I’m very happy to bring good news home,” said Sadurskaya.
And already on November 26, at a competition on the island of Dominica, Ekaterina updated her own record, diving without fins and additional equipment to 82 meters. She didn't breathe underwater for 3 minutes and 10 seconds.. And this dive caused a lot of conversations and fascinating looks. And in general, Sadurskaya became the first woman capable of overcoming such depth. She rewrote history again.
" But the training process was not easy because I had to travel a lot, I cannot train in my country because of the war. It's been a challenging season and I'm really happy to be doing deep dives like this, even at the end of the year.. This dive took me 3:10 minutes, which is pretty fast. longer time. So I improved my physical condition and technique. And it’s very interesting what will happen next,” responded Ekaterina.
According to the record holder, she discovered freediving as the only sport where I can combine sport and psychological preparation: “You can physically become stronger, more resilient, but you also need to work on your mind, because the body will not work without connection with the psyche. In other sports, you can push physically without even being in the best mental state. inner peace means a lot here. And I found him underwater"