FROM THE ENVIRONMENT TO BELGRADE. Blue eyes with yellow make-up and yellow and blue nails, one color for each hand. Yaroslava Mahuchikh carries the flag on his eyelids, fingers, uniform and waves it after the high jump gold he took at the Indoor World Cup. Flying beyond the war: “This medal goes to the soldiers fighting for our independence.”
He was at his home, in Dnipro, the day the Russians invaded Ukraine «and that was the darkness, the black out. I woke up with two explosions. I called the parents, the coach, the friends and then it’s nothing … just waiting and fear ». No more training, not even thoughts on competitions, until the federation told her they could send her to this World Cup and she thought about it for a moment then she said yes «I want to represent my people under siege. Do my best for my country ».
In Belgrade he won at 2.02, a measure he didn’t think he had in his legs and which he overcame with will. She is world champion in spite of everything: the thoughts to be tamed, the fear, the journey that lasted three days in the midst of the bombs. She was an Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo, she was the favorite before the war but it was also impossible to know in what conditions she would arrive here.
Now he will go to Germany, «it is impossible to go home now but I will soon be in Ukraine, a free Ukraine».