President of the National Olympic Committee: "500 of our athletes and coaches have died in the Russian-Ukrainian war"

The President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine Vadym Huttsait spoke about the losses of Ukrainian sports due to Russia's aggression.

Vadym Huttsait (photo: apnews.com)

— The preparation of Olympic teams will continue in full, despite the state of military action in our country. If, God willing, the war ends soon, then the training camps for the Olympians will mainly take place within the country. However, if the fighting continues, then indeed, many representatives of various Olympic sports in Ukraine have no training bases of the appropriate level left. And for members of other teams, it is impossible to prepare calmly during air alerts when our cities are being bombed. Therefore, we have to arrange training camps abroad.

Many of our Olympic facilities are currently located in occupied territories. For example, the Olympic base in occupied Kreminna (Luhansk region). In Mariupol (Donetsk region), they planned to open a reconstructed swimming pool, but due to the beginning of the large-scale invasion, they did not manage to do so. The Olympic, 50-meter pool. A modern hockey rink was built in Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia region), which is now also occupied. In Kharkiv, due to shelling, the pool where our synchronized swimmers trained has been destroyed. It has now been partially restored. And there are still many sports facilities that have been destroyed or damaged, over 500.

How many Ukrainian coaches and athletes have died in the war? These numbers change every day. But currently, about 500 of our athletes and coaches have died in the Russian-Ukrainian war. And over 3000 representatives of the sports sector have already gone to defend Ukraine. At the same time, I note that during the war, not a single athlete who was part of the national team of Ukraine has transferred to another country's team. All of them continue to defend the sporting honor of their Motherland! — said Huttsait.