Well-known athletes are often among the victims of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Like the prominent weightlifter Olexander Pyeljeschenko. The 30-year-old had fought against the invaders – and now paid for it with his life.
Another professional athlete has fallen victim to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. As the Ukrainian Olympic Committee announced on Telegram on Monday, two-time European weightlifting champion Olexander Pyeljeschenko, 30, “died in war with the enemy” at the front. According to the AP news agency, more than 400 Ukrainian athletes and officials have been killed in the war.
Ukraine: Weightlifter Pyeljeschenko fought against invaders since the beginning of the war
“It is with great sadness that we inform you that the heart of the great Ukrainian athlete Olexander Pyeljeschenko has stopped beating,” the Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation said on Monday. According to the National Committee, Pyeljeschenko joined the Ukrainian armed forces in the first days of the Russian invasion. “The war takes the best of us. This is a very heavy loss for the entire weightlifting community of Ukraine,” national coach Viktor Slobodyanjuk wrote on Facebook.
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In 2016 and 2017, Pyeljeschenko won the European Championships in the under 85 kilogram weight class after previously serving a doping ban. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, he narrowly missed an Olympic medal in fourth place, and two years later he was convicted of a doping offense again.
Source: Stern
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