22 year old Ukrainian border guard, Stanislav Kenko was
a rising judo star but his dream was destroyed by
war. He was killed, defending his country against
Russia's full scale invasion. His mother, Irena told
Reuters he was determined to succeed. But first he
wanted to serve his country. All the conventions,
all the competitions took a back seat because of the
war had to learn how to hold a rifle,
shoot a grenade launcher, train a shooting range,
dig trenches. The focus was on the war and
preparation for it before the war. Kenko had been
competing for a spot on Ukraine's national team as the
summer Olympics opens in Paris this week. Ukraine is
mourning athletes like Kenko whose sporting promise was cut short
as the conflict grinds towards its 30 th month.
At least 488. Ukrainian athletes and trainers have been
killed since 2022 around two dozen who had been European
or world champions in their discipline. According to a
sports ministry spokesman Hulk's close friend and training partner,
Vim Chernov tried to convince him to apply for leave
from the military to attend the Ukraine Cup but he
refused I said stas I still have your name tag
and he said you can give it back later when
you have the time. And it so happened that
I couldn't give this name tag back to him.
Now, this name tag travels to every competition with
me. This is such a memento. It's as
if he travels to competitions with me despite threats to
boycott the games, Kev is sending 140 athletes and
95 coaches, a smaller delegation than in peacetime they've
trained amid regular Russian air strikes that have ravaged critical
infrastructure and plunged cities across Ukraine into darkness. Athletes
from Russia and Belarus which allowed Moscow to use its
territory to launch its invasion are participating in the games
as neutrals, barred from singing anthems or displaying flags
and emblems.