The Ukrainian Championships in artistic gymnastics started last week and Kyiv and today was supposed to be the final day of the competition. As the strikes on Kyiv became a rare occurrence over the last few months, the officials deemed it to be safe enough to restart some domestic competitions. Some Ukrainian gymnasts who lived in Europe since the start of the war even came back home and competed at the nationals. For example, Valeria Osipova and Igor Radivilov are currently in Kyiv.
However, the last day of the competition was canceled due to multiple missile strikes on Kyiv. Gymnasts were safe and out of the blast zone but had to retreat to a basement that serves as a bomb shelter.
Oleg Verniaiev who attended the competition as a spectator posted a short video on his Instagram in which he said the final day of the competition was cancelled. As he was talking, an explosion could be heard in the background. Verniaiev also added he believes Russian athletes should still be banned while Ukrainian athletes are in this situation:
“Here’s the response to your question, ‘What are Russian athletes guilty of?’ Well, what the fuck are Ukrainian athletes guilty of?! We can’t train, can’t compete, can’t do anything, we can only hide in basements!”
“This is how the final competition of the Ukrainian Championships went today. In the basement. And how is it at yours, Russians? Are you also hiding your athletes from rockets?”
Those reactions from Verniaiev and Radivilova come as the FIG moved its Congress from Norway to Turkey in order to allow Russian and Belarusian delegates to participate. At the moment, five countries have already announced they will boycott the Congress over this. Meanwhile, just a few days ago, the reigning World all-around champion Angelina Melnikova talked about missing international competitions and the perceived “unfairness” of it: “Why was it my career that happened during these difficult years? What did I do wrong? And, most importantly, nothing depends on me. I can’t do anything about it.” She repeated the Russian mantra that sports are separate from politics:
The strikes on civilian targets in Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities happened a day after an explosion at the Crimean bridge that serves as a vital supply line for the Russian army. The new wave of strikes will likely prompt another exodus of refugees from Ukraine and may make leaving Ukraine difficult.
As it is, travel to competitions for Ukrainian athletes is a very arduous process. Ukrainian airports have been closed since February 24th and only land travel is possible, through the borders with Poland, Slovakia, and Romania. For example, the Ukrainian rhythmic gymnasts spent two days on a bus in order to get to the World Championships in Sofia – what would have been a two-hour flight pre-war. The current escalation in the war will undoubtedly lead to further interruptions in the training of the Ukrainian artistic gymnasts while they are preparing for the World Championships in Liverpool and will likely complicate the travel for those of them that are currently in Ukraine.
