Between war and the dream of gold: Ukrainian Jaroslava Mahutschich on behalf of the nation

The shots had been ringing out, explosions were ringing and sirens were wailing for days when Yaroslava Mahuchich decided to get in the car and drive off. Together with her friend, her trainer and her husband, she just wanted to get away from her homeland, where the war was now raging, to a place that promised her a future. A good two years later, Mahutschich was the Olympic champion in the high jump. After her gold triumph in Paris, she said: “All the medals are for our country, for Ukraine, for our defenders.” Because only thanks to them we have the opportunity to be here.”

When their country was invaded by Russia in February 2022, Ukrainians resolutely took up arms. Numerous professional athletes also did this. By the summer, around 500 foreign athletes and trainers were said to have been among the countless fatalities; they died as fighters or civilians. Countless sports facilities in the country were damaged or destroyed. The war deprived many athletes of the foundation of their sporting goals – and for some of them their lives.

At the Olympic Games in Paris, 140 athletes represented Ukraine, fewer than ever before. “I feel like a foreign ambassador,” high jumper Mahutschich told CNN in May. Her escape from Ukraine at the beginning of March 2022 took Mahutschich over more than 2,000 kilometers to Belgrade, Serbia, where the world indoor athletics championships were taking place – and Mahutschich won the high jump competition as if nothing had happened.

Sport as a distraction

She didn’t want to go back to Ukraine after that. Mahutschich initially lived in Germany, then moved to Belgium. In July of this year, shortly before the Olympic Games, she jumped 2.10 meters in Paris. World record. Before competitions, Mahutschich, now 23 years old, paints her eyelids in the Ukrainian national colors of yellow and blue. “When war broke out in 2022, I asked myself how I could show the world that I am from Ukraine and want to protect my country,” she said in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Mahutschich also wore yellow and blue on August 4th at the Stade de France in Paris. She took a running start, catapulted herself over the bar, which was exactly two meters high – and shortly afterwards ran across the tartan track, beaming with joy and with a Ukrainian flag around her shoulders. Mahutschich’s Olympic victory was one of three for Ukraine in Paris.

But for Ukrainian athletes, times of war are about more than just winning. Regardless of their sporting ambitions, they shared a common mission in 2024, whether at the Olympics, the Paralympics, the European Football Championship or other competitions: to give the people back home what there is currently all too little of there. Distraction, for example. Entertainment. Joy. Proud. And hope.

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When the national soccer team was bitterly eliminated after the preliminary round of the European Championship in Germany, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj wrote on Olympic victory: “I am motivated by being a symbol of this fight for independence and freedom.”