The World Championships in Athletics will take place without Russia. Nobody is allowed to start, look after, not even help. World-class Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchich believes this is inevitable. She also draws this knowledge from her relationship with a Russian competitor.
Yaroslava Mahuchich welcomed the exclusion of Russian athletes from the World Athletics Championships in Eugene/USA (July 15-24) because of the attack on their homeland. Many Russian athletes would "support Vladimir Putin. I don't want to see murderers on the track," said Mahuchich, who, with her 2.03 meters, leads the world list of the best for the year and is considered the top favorite for World Cup gold. This war has "really killed a lot of athletes," said the Ukrainian high jumper. "Our people are dying because they are Ukrainians."
Mahuchikh, who fled abroad by car after the Russian invasion from Dnepropetrovsk, has always kept her thoughts in Ukraine. She wants to make her compatriots happy with a triumph in the final on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday (2.40 a.m. CEST). "I hope it will be good news for the Ukrainian people," said the European indoor champion, who believes Ukraine will win the war.
Her previously good relationship with the Russian Olympic champion Marija Lasizkene suffered greatly as a result of the war. "Before February 24 we had a good relationship, we talked to each other," Mahuchikh said, referring to the day Russia invaded Ukraine. "But that day changed everything." Mahutschich said that Lasizkene had not received a word of sympathy or support.
However, the Russian expressed her sympathy for the Ukrainians in a letter to IOC President Thomas Bach: "My most important colleagues in the high jump are the Ukrainian girls. I don't know what to say to my colleagues or how to look them in the eye .You and your friends and family are experiencing what no human should ever feel." Lasizkene wrote this letter at the beginning of June so that he could still take part in the World Cup. She thinks the blanket ban on all Russians is unfair.
In the letter, she also slammed several of Bach's quotes: "The rights of everyone who does not support the war must be respected, under our rules and the rules of international law," he said. Apparently that doesn't apply to her. "They say they excluded Russian athletes for fear of their safety," the 29-year-old wrote to Bach, "but that's not true. Russian tennis professionals play all over the world" and proved the opposite. In her opinion, it is high time "to no longer use national flags and national anthems at the Olympic Games and in sport in general". Because fans would become fans because of the performance, not because of the origin.
World Athletics has banned all athletes, coaches and officials from Russia and Belarus "for the foreseeable future" from all events under its auspices because of the attack on Ukraine. The Russian association has been suspended since 2015 because of the doping scandal. Even "neutral athletes" are not allowed to start at the World Championships.
