“I don’t want to see any murderers on the track,” says Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchich ahead of the World Championships in Eugene. She wins silver and immediately thinks back to Dnipropetrovsk, her homeland. She would love to celebrate there with her family. But that’s not possible.
Yaroslava Mahuchich looked at her silver medal and beamed. “For me it’s gold,” said the high jumper from Ukraine, who is also far away at the World Championships in Eugene/USA with her thoughts at home: “We will fight for our independence and our country. And of course we will win in the end.”
Since February 24, at 4:30 a.m., war has raged in Mahuchich’s life. The 20-year-old remembers the “terrible noises of explosions, artillery fire and shots” clearly. She managed to escape from Dnipropetrovsk, the three-day odyssey on the way to the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade and her triumph there made headlines around the world.
“I can’t even imagine what she’s going through,” said the new world champion Eleanor Patterson, the Australian jumped over 2.02 m in the first attempt – Mahutschich in a heart-stopping final “only” in the second: “She’s an incredible person and athlete”. Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, said of Mahuchich and the other 20 athletes from Ukraine at the World Cup: “Their homes have been destroyed. It’s unimaginable. I don’t think any of us can fathom what that means.”
Since so many Ukrainians are dying, Mahuchich, who now lives safely in Germany like her mother, sister and niece, was happy and relieved that Russian athletes are not allowed to compete in Eugene because of the war – not even as neutral athletes.
“I don’t want to see any murderers on the track,” said the Olympic bronze medalist before the competitions. Many Russian athletes would “support” Vladimir Putin. Her previously good relationship with the Russian Olympic champion Marija Lasizkene is now shattered by the attack.
Mahuchich wishes nothing more than to travel back to Dnipropetrovsk with her silver medal and to see her father and grandfather. “But I can’t do that now,” she said. “The Russians took that opportunity away from me.”
