PARIS: Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh dedicated her Olympic high jump gold medal on Sunday to the nearly 500 athletes and coaches who have been killed since Russia invaded her country in 2022.
The 22-year-old lived up to her pre-Paris Games billing to win the title at the Stade de France.
She was more intent on winning to give some pleasure to her compatriots back in her war-torn country than breaking her own world record.
The world champion, a bronze medallist in Tokyo three years ago, managed a best of 2.00m to win on countback from Australia's Nicola Olyslagers.
Another Australian, Eleanor Patterson, claimed joint bronze together with a second Ukrainian, Iryna Gerashchenko, both on 1.95m.
Mahuchikh said her thoughts were with the many athletes and coaches who had lost their lives in the conflict – they, she said, would never be able to experience an evening like she had had in Paris.
"You know of course, it's really important," she said of the gold medal.
"But in my country the Russians killed people and almost 500 sportsmen died in this war and they will never compete and celebrate and feel this atmosphere.
"So I'm happy with the gold medal and it's really for all of them Its really incredible that we have three medals in track and field now."
Mahuchikh draped herself in the Ukrainian flag and hugged Geraschchenko with the duet briefly doing a celebratory jump up and down with the two Australians on the landing mat.
Mahuchikh – whose mind is constantly on her family's wellbeing back in Dnipro which she says is shelled daily – nearly fell over as a result but it was the only time in the evening she put a foot wrong.
Mahuchikh then went over and gave a tug on the bell in the corner of the stadium and she and Gerashchenko also celebrated with compatriot Myhaylo Kohkan, who had just won bronze in the men's hammer.
The trio's achievements earned praise from Ukrainian presiden Volodymyr Zelensky.
"We are very proud!" he said. "Thank you for this result. Ukrainians know how to be strong and how to win."
Gerashchenko, 29, added Olympic bronze to the European one she won earlier this year and summed up the trio's feelings.
"It is amazing it is our night for the Ukrainian people and team."
Wearing her trademark blue and yellow eyeliner – the colours of the Ukraine flag – Mahuchikh was nowhere near her 2.10m world record form of the Paris Diamond League last month.
That mark beat by 1cm the previous record set by Bulgaria's Stefka Kostadinova in 1987, one of track and field's longest-standing.
But her Paris performance on Sunday was enough for Olympic gold, the sole trophy missing from the high jumper's impressive medal haul.
"Before this Olympics Games, there was a lot of pressure outside but I try not to think about that because i feel comfortable at the track," she said.
"I just enjoyed the atmosphere. I wanted to win the gold, thank god that my coach from my childhood told me that you should jump all heights with first attempts."
Mahuchikh, who fled the Russian bombardment of her native city of Dnipro in February 2022, claimed world gold in Budapest last year after taking silver in Eugene, the same result she also achieved in Doha in 2019.
Because of the war, the Ukrainian had to make a six-day car journey to Belgrade in 2022 where she added the world indoor high jump title to those two world silvers and Olympic bronze she had already collected.
This season Mahuchikh also claimed world indoor silver in Glasgow in March.
Apart from her sublime jumping the other thing that cuaght the eye was her getting into a sleeping bag in between jumps.
"I just relax in it because i feel comfortable when I lie down and sometimes I can count numbers, look at the clouds," she said. --AFP