Twice European champion at 85 kg, in 2016 and 2017, this athlete joined the Ukrainian armed forces at the start of the Russian invasion.
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Ukrainian weightlifter Oleksandr Pielieshenko, who participated in the Rio Olympics, was killed at the front, the Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation announced on Monday May 6. Aged 30, this athlete had been twice European champion, in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, in Rio, he took fourth place in the 85 kg category.
“It is with great sadness that we inform you that the heart of the great Ukrainian sportsman Oleksandr Pielieshenko has stopped beating”, declared the Federation in a press release. The coach of the Ukrainian weightlifting team Victor Slobodianiuk wrote on Facebook that the athlete was “died a hero defending Ukraine”. Oleksandr Pielieshenko joined the Ukrainian armed forces at the start of the Russian offensive, in February 2022, recalled the Ukrainian Olympic Committee.
