In Paris, Ukrainian Olympian will compete with war on her mind

KYIV REGION, Ukraine : When Ukrainian canoeist Anastasiia Rybachok sculls through the nautical stadium in the Paris Olympics, she will be thinking of her compatriots under fire.

"I want to pay them back with whatever I can on the 'front line' of sports," she said of the troops fighting Russian forces. "I want to do my best to prove to them that what they do is not in vain."

Rybachok, 26, is among the 140 Ukrainian athletes who will participate in the Paris Games as Moscow's full-scale invasion grinds into its 30th month and shows no signs of slowing.

They have trained amid Russian airstrikes and a constant stream of news from the front, where the Kremlin's forces are pressing forward in several directions.

Nearly 500 Ukrainian athletes have been killed since February 2022 and hundreds of facilities damaged or destroyed, according to Kyiv's sports ministry.

Early in the war, Rybachok's hometown of Kherson in southern Ukraine was quickly occupied by Russian forces as she watched in horror from abroad.

Her parents managed to flee after several months - with her mother carrying the silver medal Rybachok won in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

"She wore it on her neck because they (Russian forces) were confiscating all gold, silver and other precious metals," said Rybachok, who returned to Ukraine in June 2022.

Since then, the Olympian has juggled training and motherhood after giving birth to a son in 2023. She cited family as her chief motivation to compete again.

Rybachok said she will feel added pressure in this year's Games, but also that finishing first will not be the only priority.

"For me, to raise Ukrainian flag at the Olympic Games will be a great honour, no matter whether it will be bronze, silver or a gold."