Paralympic athletes from Ukraine compete, cry and hear bombs over the phone

Valerii Suchkevitch, president of the Ukraine Paralympic Committee, can see in the red, puffy eyes of his athletes that they are not sleeping well.

He knows that worry and fear for the fate of their families and their country, which is under attack by the Russian army, weighs heavily on them.

He sees athletes with their eyes fixed on their cell phones, taking advantage of every possibility of connecting via the internet with loved ones before the network goes down, and he sees them dry their tears before leaving for the competition spaces where they will defend their country.

They feel powerless, except for one thing, their contests at the Winter Paralympics in Beijing.

“Our soldiers have their battles in Ukraine,” Suchkevitch said in an emotional interview conducted with the help of an interpreter. “We, the Paralympic team, have our battles here in Beijing. If we hadn’t come here, we would be losing a position, as if we had capitulated.”

Ukraine’s Paralympic team, one of the most successful on the planet, has been in China since the last days of February, thanks in part to Suchkevitch’s logistical efforts. Now, they are refugees with a purpose.

“We are here to represent our country,” said Oksana Chichkova, who on Monday won Ukraine’s fourth gold medal in a cross-country ski event. “To glorify our country and tell the world that Ukraine exists.”

His passionate and painful appeal was one of many made in recent days by Ukrainian athletes after the end of their races, in a tone far removed from the optimism and enthusiasm brought by a victory.

The Paralympic Games, which are very popular in Ukraine, are often a time of celebration, camaraderie and joy for athletes — like a holiday — Suchkevitch said.

“Not today,” he said, with a wave of his hand. “I ask athletes in the morning if they’ve slept, and they say no. Their faces look sad, dejected. The mood is heavy. We’re all thinking about our home.”

Suchkevitch defined as a small miracle the operation to transport the 54 members of the delegation to China, among athletes, coaches and support staff, in the midst of an invasion. And when the Games are over on Sunday (13), he has to transport everyone out of China.

But where? Leading such a large group of people into a besieged country is implausible at the moment, which is why Suchkevitch, his team, and his wife, Iuliia, are spending a lot of time preparing parallel plans to get all members of the delegation safely to a undetermined European country, which would serve as an intermediate stop.

“For how long?” he asked. “Days? Weeks? We stay in hotels, and how do we pay for it? We don’t have the money. And we don’t have any answers yet.”

With the International Paralympic Committee, they were also preparing an unusual and solemn rally for peace in the three Olympic villages, which is due to take place on Thursday.

Suchkevitch, 67, had polio as a child and moves around in a wheelchair. After a life spent campaigning for the disabled, having competed as a swimmer in the Paralympic Games, he became a member of the Ukrainian legislature. For the past three years he has been commissioner of the government department responsible for the rights of disabled people.

He has become something of a patron saint of Ukraine’s disabled, and many have reached out to him recently on social media or text messages, asking for help.

The official said that during his stay in Beijing, he received several messages from a wheelchair user who was trapped on the 17th floor of a building that had been evacuated because the elevator was not working. He said the messages had recently stopped and that he didn’t get a response when he tried to call her. The fear is for the worst.

“The wheelchair users can’t run from the bombs,” he said. “The blind can’t run from rockets.”

Suchkevitch pointed out that the invasion had taken place after the Winter Olympics, but during the Paralympics. “As if to say we don’t matter, we’re worthless,” he said.

Most Ukrainian athletes arrived in China from their training site near Milan, Italy. They are determined to make everyone aware of the suffering that is happening in their country because of the terrifying attacks.

By the end of Chinese Tuesday (8), Ukraine had won 17 medals, six gold, seven silver and four bronze. Overall, it was second only to host China (27, eight of them gold).

“Through sport, we can come to you and tell the world what’s going on,” said Chichkova.

She described the relentless pressure and exhaustion that Ukrainian athletes are feeling. She highlighted the physical and psychological impact of her isolation.

Another gold medal winner, Vitalii Lukianenko, 43, was so shaken and physically fatigued on the morning of his race on Saturday that Suchkevitch, the committee chairman, wondered if he could compete.

Lukianenko is from Kharkiv, a city that has been under attack from Russia. His family had to take refuge in an underground shelter. “I saw his physical condition, his red eyes,” Suchkevitch said. “I thought he couldn’t compete.”

But Suchkevitch said that as soon as he reached the starting line of his biathlon race, Lukianenko changed his mind and promised himself he wouldn’t feel pain or fatigue on the track. He finished first, in what must surely be his last Paralympic edition.

“Anyone who knows his situation knows it was a miracle,” Suchkevitch said. The three medalists of the race were Ukrainians.

But medals are not the only indication of courage. Iuliia Batenkova-Bauman, 38, left her husband and daughter in Kiev when she traveled to Italy to train weeks before the invasion. She talks to her family every hour when she’s not training or racing.

“When I manage to talk to them, I hear gunshots and the sound of shelling,” Batenkova-Bauman said. “They see the rockets from the window. It’s killing me.”

Batenkova-Bauman, who has spoken to different news outlets, cried in virtually every interview. She said that she has barely slept the last few days and that when she does manage to sleep, her sleep is plagued by nightmares.

Suchkevitch, who has known the athlete for years, after being informed of her reaction at the end of her race, paused, apologized and wiped tears from her face and eyes with a tissue.

He knew that Batenkova-Bauman was not in good condition to run and saw her suffer two falls on the 15 kilometer course. He begged the coach to take her out of the race, but the coach said that he had already tried to convince her to give up, to no avail. She finished fifth in the race and did not win a medal.

“One might think this is no accomplishment,” Suchkevitch said, his voice breaking. “But it’s an accomplishment. It’s an accomplishment.”