Sergei Bubka mobilizes to defend sport

Ukrainian athletes gathered in a modest gymnasium in kyiv (Ukraine) discuss with the legendary former pole vaulter, Sergei Bubka. The latter remembers in particular the moment when he learned that the war in Ukraine was beginning. He was with Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), chatting with a Ukrainian athlete. “We asked her where she was from, where her parents were from. She told us that her parents were from Mykolaiv and then she started crying”he remembers, also very moved.

In his career as a pole vaulter, Sergei Bubka has won everything, set nearly 35 world records, first under the Soviet banner and then from 1991 and the collapse of communism, he competes for Ukraine. He was born in Luhansk, a city in the East in a republic self-proclaimed by Moscow and now bombed. After seeing his country being bombed, he thought about what role he could play in this conflict. A member of the IOC, the former athlete is fighting to defend his country and sport in Ukraine. Since the start of the war, more than 3,000 athletes have left Ukraine and are now training in other countries.