AS THE WAR in Ukraine rages on, the effects are omnipresent in the country. Even in the capital city of Kyiv, considered one of the “safe spots,” rockets zoom past buildings and drones are visible overhead. Yet Ukraine’s top athletes remain hell-bent on competing in this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris—the nation’s first Olympics since the February 2022 Russian invasion. In the months leading up to the event, Men’s Health reports on the ground to find out how—amid so much uncertainty and adversity—three Olympians train during war and what bringing home a medal would mean for them and their country. What remains clear: The stakes have never been higher, the training routines have never been tougher, and the grit has never been stronger.
Oleh Kukharyk
27, Sprint Canoer
ON THE OPEN water of the Stuhna River, a 25-minute drive from the Ukrainian Olympic base in Kyiv, Oleh Kukharyk and his teammate Igor Trunov sit in a twoperson sprint canoe on a gloomy April day as they wait for their coach, Oleksandr Simonov, to blow his whistle. Kukharyk and his team of four once trained in Dnipro, a city in eastern Ukraine on the Dnipro River, but the war has made that impossible. Dnipro is about a three-hour drive from the southeastern front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, and the river has become a dangerous place where the sportsmen might be targeted while training. Though the Stuhna is thought to be safer, seeing rockets and drones soar across the sky is still considered “normal.”
“You just” says Kukharyk, who’s competing this summer in his first Olympic Games, which he’s been preparing for since he was 12. His lanky, toned arms are covered in tattoos, accompanied by a cluster of designs on his left leg. His head is shaved, his eyes gray like the sky. “”
