Ukraine Has Won Two High Jump Medals This Week As Athletes Press On And Live Out Of Suitcases, Unable To Return Home As War Rages On

By Elias Esquivel for DyeStat

EUGENE — Yevhen Pronin, the acting president of Ukraine’s track and field federation, spent the last four months on the front lines against the Russian invasion. 

As soon as the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore. conclude, he’ll return to his home country and spend another three weeks on those front lines. 

If everything goes OK, Pronin says, he will then travel to Munich for the European Championships. 

Splitting time between battle fields and athletic stadiums sounds too surreal to be true, but it is Pronin’s reality. The reality for millions of Ukrainians is a home turned into a war zone. Despite it all, the Ukrainian national team is competing for its country and people, hoping to be a light in a very dark time.   

“Of course our country is still in a difficult situation, and our team is still in a difficult situation,” Pronin said. “Other teams can stay home, train at home, and see their parents and children… our athletes didn’t have that chance the last six months, because they’re situated all over Europe and the world.” 

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Allocating sufficient funds has added to the extensive difficulties for the national team. The government can’t provide support, since all the available money is reserved for the war effort. However, Pronin praised the financial assistance distributed from the European Athletic Association and its president, Dobromir Karamarinov, saying, “I don’t know somebody who's helped us more.”

The team has enough money to support it for the next five months. 

Money clearly isn’t the only issue. Due to the circumstances in Ukraine, the country’s national team for Eugene is the smallest in its history, said Pronin, with 22 athletes competing. The smaller pool of athletes hasn’t prevented the Ukrainians from winning two medals — both were in the high jump, with Andriy Protsenko winning bronze on Monday and Yaroslava Mahuchikh winning silver on Tuesday. Teammate Iryna Geraschenko was fourth. 

Protsenko’s bronze came only months after fleeing his country.

“Three months ago I managed to take my family from Ukraine and occupied territory, but I left everything in my home town of Kherson,” Protsenko said. “I took only one bag. That's all I have.” 

For Mahuchikh, the indoor world champion in Belgrade, the medal was more than just another bullet point on a long list of accolades for the 20-year old. 

“Every medal now is for the Ukrainian people and my country,” Mahuchikh said. “I want to give our people a smile and make them feel warm inside, and I hope that I’ve done this.” 

Track and field has provided an escape for Mahuchikh and her teammates. It provides a distraction, demanding their full focus and consuming their attention, if only for a while. 

“When you go outside the track,” Mahuchikh said, “you come back to the moment mentally, and you think about it every time.” 

Even though Pronin is an active military member, he says his athletes are in a grimmer situation. They have to sit and wait in the unknown, constantly worrying about their family and friends in Ukraine. It’s an experience Pronin is becoming familiar with.

He says being in Eugene and reading news about Ukraine has been more difficult emotionally. It leaves him as a bystander, unable to react immediately and help as he would if he was in Ukraine. He knows the time for conversation is over. 

“Five months ago, I can ask Putin, ‘Please stop the war. Please stop your soldiers,’” Pronin said. “But when they kill 300 Ukrainian children, I can say nothing… we must respond to aggression with aggression, on our land, not in Russia, because they started this war, but we must finish this war.”