Through her own foundation, she is also getting mental health support for young Ukrainian tennis players affected by the war.
We are making every effort to avoid a lost generation\n
Trying to continue supporting young athletes has been Olha Saladukha’s aim too. Saladukha, 39, won triple jump Olympic bronze at London 2012, is a former world champion, and has since become a member of parliament in Zelensky’s Servant of the People party.
“The situation is bad. The sports infrastructure has been damaged massively, which makes it completely impossible for younger athletes as well as adults to train,” Saladukha tells Telegraph Sport from Kyiv, speaking through a translator. She also hosted an athletics competition last month for younger teens, with 250 of the country’s most talented children travelling to Kyiv to take part.
“These kids, they’ve lost their homes and all they see is war, but they’re grateful for competition and have asked for more,” she says. “It was not really surprising to see what happened in Australia, but it’s such a bad image for sport what happened with the flags, with the face of Putin. It’s impossible for Ukrainian athletes to shake hands with Russian or Belarusian counterparts.
