Mahuchikh made the comment in an interview with Polish state news agency PAP.
She was speaking in Istanbul, Turkey, after winning the gold medal at the 2023 European Indoor Athletics Championships, with a jump of 1.98m on Sunday.
Her compatriot Kateryna Tabashnyk scooped the bronze, with 1.94m, while Britt Weerman of the Netherlands secured the silver after clearing 1.98m.
‘We must show people that Ukraine is alive’
Asked what her victory meant for her and for Ukraine, Mahuchikh said in English:
“It’s a pleasure for me that I defended my title of European indoor champion. And of course I’m happy that I represented my country. It’s very important for us now to show that Ukraine is alive.”
'We should do everything' to bar Russia, Belarus from Olympics
Asked if she could imagine competing against Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Olympic Games, she answered that the Ukrainian Olympic Committee had said Ukraine would boycott the Paris Games if Russians and Belarusians were allowed to take part.
Mahuchikh said it was “a strong position,” but stressed that “we should do everything” to ensure that “Russian and Belarusian athletes do not enter the track” at the next Olympics.
She noted that “many Russian athletes support the war.”
Mahuchikh said that Team Ukraine should take part in the 2024 Olympics “because it’s a big competition” and “a lot of people watch the Olympic Games and it’s very important to show Ukraine.”
‘I want to go back to my country’
Mahuchikh said she managed to spend two weeks in her hometown of Dnipro in central Ukraine in the winter, which enabled her “to recover mentally” because “home is home.”
But she added that "at the moment," to be able to continue her career and achieve results, she "should go and train abroad.”
The Ukrainian high jumper said she was keeping in touch with her sister, her father and the rest of her family back home.
Mahuchikh told PAP she wanted the war to end. “I want to go back to my country," she said. "I want to train in my country and enjoy life.”
‘I’m so thankful to all the countries that are helping us’
She stressed that many Ukrainians were similarly “separated from their families.”
“A lot of parents lost their children and the children lost their parents," Mahukich said. "It’s terrible because every day there are Russian rocket attacks on our cities."
She noted that just days earlier there was a missile strike on an apartment building in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, in which “a lot of people died.”
“I'm so thankful to all the countries that are helping us,” she said.
Mahuchikh, 21, last year won the European championships in Munich, Germany, and the world indoor championships in Belgrade, Serbia, as well as finishing runner-up at the world championships in Eugene, USA, the PAP news agency reported.
Monday is day 376 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, femisports.com