Ukraine’s Ryzhykova fighting the best way she can – on the track

Agency :
Hurdler Anna Ryzhykova, one of an estimated 40,000 athletes across all sports forced to flee Ukraine to train abroad after Russia’s invasion, says she is fighting for her homeland in the best way she can – with her results on the track.
The Olympic bronze medallist has already qualified for the World Athletics Championships in August and the renewal of the Ukraine Solidarity Fund, announced by the sport’s global governing body on Wednesday, will help ease her road there.
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The World Athletics backed fund distributed US$220,000 to more than 100 Ukraine athletes in 2022.
Ryzhykova fled her eastern Ukraine home of Dnipro within weeks of Russia invading the country in February last year in what Moscow calls a “special operation.” Her coach Volodymyr Kravchenko joined Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces.
“Every Ukrainian stood up to defend our homeland … as is the case in sport,” Ryzhykova told a small group of reporters on a call from Fort Worth, Texas, where she is temporarily living and training. “By participating in competitions, we do not let the world forget about such a country as Ukraine.
“I continue to cry and worry every day about my friends, my family. But I still continue to train and still continue to show good results to help my country.”
The 33-year-old Ryzhykova was fifth in the 400 metres hurdles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics in the 4×400 relay.
According to international athlete-led organisation Global Athlete, since the invasion 343 sport facilities have been destroyed, leaving an estimated 140,000 young athletes without facilities, while 40,000 athletes are training abroad.
The figures cover all sports.
Ryzhykova spent many weeks each year training at a top athletics facility in Bakhmut.
Russian forces have been waging an intense campaign for months to seize control of the small city and secure Moscow its first battlefield victory in more than half a year.
“Now it is destroyed, and the city is under fire for the last many months,” said Ryzhykova.
The financial help to train and compete abroad is crucial since “sports bases have been destroyed, there are constant threats of rocket attacks, we live in fear,” she added.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that 228 Ukrainian athletes had been killed in the war.
Ukraine’s high jumper Kateryna Tabashnyk dedicated her bronze medal at this month’s European Indoor Championships to her mother, who was killed in a Russian strike in August, saying: “This medal carries all my pain and sorrow.”