Ukraine’s Yuliya Levchenko: ‘We need to have peace so we create our future’

‘We want to represent our country, our team, our spirit. We have the right to play sport, join the Olympic community and participate in Olympic traditions.’‘We want to represent our country, our team, our spirit. We have the right to play sport, join the Olympic community and participate in Olympic traditions.’

That is, in essence, the motivation to continue but there remains an exhausting burden to carry. For Levchenko, who comes across as thoughtful and considerate to a fault, that extends to managing her interactions with foreign peers when they meet. They are supportive and engaged but she fears sounding like a broken record. “I can say to them ‘I’m upset, everything’s bad because I lost my friend yesterday in the war,’” she says.

Silver at the 2017 World Championships in London was a high point and at 26 she has time to match her compatriot, Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who tops the global charts and picked up bronze at Tokyo 2020. This summer’s showpiece is, she says, “a celebration of sport, something special”, and in one sense it resembles a second chance.

Recollections of her first competitive jump since life turned upside down bring light, self-mocking laughter. It was in Eugene, Oregon that May and simply being there felt miraculous. “I was like a total loser. When you compete you need to be a fighter. But I was all: ‘Ahhh, OK, it’s not a problem, I love everyone!’“I’d had so much support from all the other athletes, they’d been asking about everything that was going on, and it was as if I forgot I needed to jump.

“As an athlete I don’t want to damage someone else’s career. But nor can I support it when Russian missiles damage our sports facilities and a lot of athletes lost their lives. And I don’t know how we can separate sport and real life. When I come from Ukraine and get a text from their country, how can we communicate if you’re always between life and death?”

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