Vladyslav Heraskevych: A Ukrainian Olympian in a Time of War

Vladyslav Heraskevych, who became Ukraine’s most famous Olympian in 2022 because of the antiwar sign he held in front of a television camera days before Russia invaded his country, feels the guilt come in waves.

They are especially powerful when the bad news from the front lines reaches him, as it did last month, when he learned that his friend and teammate at the Youth Olympic Games, the figure skater Dmytro Sharpar, died in combat near Bakhmut. Sharpar was 25.

Days later, another top Ukrainian athlete, the decathlon champion Volodymyr Androshchuk, also died in fighting near Bakhmut. He was 22.

“It is very hard to understand how these people sacrificed their lives while you are doing sport,” Heraskevych said from Austria during an interview earlier this month, after competing in a skeleton race on the World Cup circuit. He was in Latvia last week for the season’s final competition.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/sports/ukraine-war-vladyslav-heraskevych.html