in Paris, the strong symbol of the Ukrainian Olympic House – L’Express

With the Ukrainian flag on her back, Svitlana Sopit cannot suppress a cry of victory: on the giant screen in front of her, the Ukrainian football team has just scored a goal against Morocco. The match, which started at 5 p.m. this Saturday, July 27, is the very first competition broadcast live at the Ukrainian Olympic House, which has just been inaugurated at the Trabendo, in the heart of the Parc de la Villette, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. Named “Volia”, which means “freedom” or “will” in Ukrainian, the place will welcome supporters, officials or simply curious people throughout the Olympic Games to follow the sporting performances of the Ukrainian athletes. And to recall the symbolic weight of their presence at the Paris Olympics. “Here, I feel at home, it’s like a little piece of Ukraine in France. Above all, it’s a way of showing that we are still here, that we have not been broken. And that we will always continue to fight,” confides Svitlana Sopit, foil specialist.

Since the Russian invasion two and a half years ago, and despite the bombings, the alarm sirens and the incessant power cuts, this fencer has never stopped training. Although she was ultimately not selected for these Olympic Games, the young woman wants to remind us, through her presence, of the immense resilience of Ukrainian athletes. “For all of us, training was very stressful and marked by the violence of the conflict. We lost a lot of infrastructure, coaches, athletes who went into combat or were victims of the bombings,” she recalls. One of her fellow fencers, aged just 18, never returned from the front. This loss, which Svitlana Sopit speaks of with emotion, is far from exceptional: since February 24, 2022, nearly 500 athletes or coaches have lost their lives in the conflict, either as soldiers or victims of Russian strikes.

This is the case of judoka Stanislav Houlenkov, who died on the front at the age of 23, weightlifter Oleksandr Pieliechenko, double European champion in the under 85 kilos category, killed in combat at the age of 30, or acrobatic gymnastics coach Anastasia Ihnatenko, killed in a Russian missile attack in Dnipro with her husband and 18-month-old son. So many compatriots who died in combat, to whom Anastasia, a Ukrainian student who took refuge in France and volunteered at Volia Space, is keen to pay tribute. “They gave up their Olympic dreams to join the armed forces and defend our country. This Ukrainian house is also a way of honouring their memory,” she explains. For the young woman, this place is also “a unique opportunity” to fuel media and political interest in the conflict in Ukraine. “The violence continues. Even if we talk about it less, as time passes, as people get tired. Athletes, soldiers and civilians continue to die and be attacked right now. We must remember this, make sure that no one forgets us,” she sighs.

“We know what every victory means”

Here, between the giant screens and the tables ready to welcome the supporters, the crushed carcass of the stands of a Kharkiv stadium, bombarded by Russian missiles, reminds visitors of the reality of the war on the ground. A few meters away, a photo of the high jump specialist Andriy Protsenko training in weightlifting with two tires in the Kherson region illustrates the struggle of the athletes to continue their preparations, in a country where more than 400 sports infrastructures have been destroyed. On the walls of the entrance gate, the supporters and volunteers are called to stick stickers with the image of the Ukrainian territory, and to affix the message of their choice.

The Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who came to inaugurate the structure alongside her Ukrainian counterpart, Matviy Bidnyi, took part in the exercise, and chose to write “Volia will to win” on it. [NDLR : Volia, la volonté de gagner]. After a minute of silence in tribute to the victims of the war and the playing of the Ukrainian anthem, the minister wanted to recall France’s commitment to Ukraine, particularly through these Olympic Games. “It is an honour for France to host this Ukrainian house […] and to have been able to financially support the athletes, through 3,000 hours of training offered by the Ministry of Sports for the Ukrainian delegation, in three centers of the territory, she explains. We know how hard your training has been, and we also know what each victory means.”

Symbol of resistance

For Ukrainian athletes, every match and every medal counts. Since the beginning of the conflict, the Ukrainian defense strategy has relied in particular on sport and the popularity of certain athletes to campaign for military support for Ukraine. The Klitschko brothers, both former world heavyweight boxing champions, for example, have taken advantage of their fame to raise funds against the Russian aggressor – the eldest of the siblings, Vitali, who has also been mayor of kyiv since 2014, has made numerous media appearances to discuss the situation in his city and the need for foreign aid. During the 2022 Ballon d’Or ceremony, former player Andrei Shevchenko, Ukraine’s all-time top scorer, did not hesitate to speak out to call for funds to be raised for the United24 donation platform, managed by the Ukrainian government.

Tennis player Elina Zvitolina, bronze medalist in singles in Tokyo and 31st player in the world, has also been very committed to Ukraine on social networks and on the courts, for example refusing to shake the hands of her Russian rivals or wearing a black ribbon at Wimbledon last July to pay tribute to the victims of the bombing of the children’s hospital in Kiev. Having become a symbol of the struggle in her country, the player was also designated as the flag bearer for the Ukrainian delegation for the opening ceremony on Friday, July 26.

A particularly telling scene for Vadym Guttsait, president of the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee. “Yesterday, the whole world was able to see our flag. We showed the whole world that we resist, that we exist, and that we will always exist,” he insisted on the occasion of this inauguration. Russia, for its part, was excluded from the opening ceremony, and its athletes will only be able to participate in the Games under a neutral banner, on condition that they have no links with the army and have in no way supported the invasion of Ukraine.