"Everything was green for me": Ukraine's flag-bearer at the Olympics refused to compete in the Seine and lives separately from his wife

Mykhailo Romanchuk, a silver and bronze medalist at the 2020 Olympic Games in swimming, has admitted that he did not apply for the Paris Open Water Games because he was worried about his health. The 27-year-old Ukrainian steeplechaser, who will carry the Ukrainian flag at the opening ceremony, spoke about the quality of the water in the Seine, as well as the peculiarities of this Olympics, training in Ukraine and nutrition on the day of the start.

Also speaking to journalists, Romanchuk noted that he and his wife, a European champion and silver medalist in the triple jump and long jump, will live separately in Paris. And he is more nervous during his beloved's performance than during his own.

- Marina and I will be living separately at the Olympics because we came to the Olympics not as husband and wife, but as professional athletes who want to do a good job.

- Who will you be more worried about - your performance or your wife?

- Of course, for my wife. When I compete, I only get nervous before I go to the start. During the performance, the excitement turns into energy, and everything depends on me. And when my wife performs, you spend an hour and a half in the sector just face to face with nerves, because nothing depends on you at all.

- You will be one of the main actors in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games on the Seine.

- Water and swimming are close. I like this kind of know-how, I like creative solutions. I have never been to any opening ceremony and decided to try it out for myself.

- What does "finally" mean?

- Take it however you like (smiles).

- Do you feel more psychologically calm now than before the previous Olympics?

- This is my third Games. Yes, I was worried before Tokyo 2020, but I'm still worried now. This is the Olympics, the most prestigious competition for an athlete. Even if you have medals, it doesn't mean that you won't be nervous at the next Olympics. I am the same person I was before. I'll be worried in the same way.

- What will be special about these Games for you?

- Every Olympics is special for an athlete. It doesn't matter if it's the first, second, or third. There are athletes who went to their fifth Olympics. And even the sixth. So I'm sure that the sixth one is special for them, no matter how many they've already participated in. That's why it's a great holiday for the athletes.

For me, it's simply special because it's the first time I'm going to the opening. The fact that it will be on the river. You can name many things. Of course, because of our situation and the conditions we are in now.

- My foreign colleagues often ask me how Ukrainian athletes cope with such pressure. In particular, how do you manage it?

- It is very difficult for me. In fact, I trained for a year and a half in Germany. And in August 2023, I returned to Ukraine. Because this is my state, my country. And it was decided that I want to spend the year before the 2024 Games and the Olympic year at home, enjoying my country. To show young athletes that they need to come back to Ukraine. Because it is we, the young people, who will have to restore, develop, and rebuild it.

And I hope that my example has somehow shown that it is possible to return home. Not even possible, but necessary to return, if you really want to. There have been a lot of messages from young athletes who really want to return to Ukraine, but don't know how. Because they applied for refugee status abroad and also have some obligations to the country that sheltered them.

But I hope that even now, in such a difficult moment, when the war is still going on in our territory, people will return to Ukraine. It is young, adequate, intelligent, intellectually developed people who will enable our country to flourish and develop.

- But the current young leaders of Ukrainian swimming, such as Bukhov and Zheltiakov, train in Ukraine. One under rockets in Dnipro, the other in Kyiv.

- Yes, it is quite nice that they stay in our country and show by their example that you can train at home. Of course, it's very hard, there are alarms and explosions, it's scary, there is no light, it's cold, it hurts. There is much more to mention here. But, as the last European Championships showed, our national team is developing quite well, young athletes are emerging, a relay race that has never been seen in my career. And I believe that so far our national team is moving in the right direction.

- Where do you train in Ukraine? Do they turn off the lights too?

- I also train in Ukraine, wherever I can. This year we have trained in Kyiv, CSKA, Brovary, Poltava, and in Dnipro. Wherever there is an opportunity.

We spent the last two months at a training camp in France, in the highlands. Then we moved to the European Championship. And after the championship, there were literally three weeks left before the Olympics, so we decided not to return to Ukraine, because it's a two-day one-way trip, and then we have to leave again in two days. So I have not been in Ukraine for eight and a half weeks and I really want to go home.

- Is there any special support for Ukrainians from other athletes in the Olympic Village?

- Honestly, I don't know, because I've just arrived, so I haven't felt it at all. It seems to me that there is no special support and there won't be any, because a lot of people are used to the fact that there is a war in Ukraine, and everyone is tired of talking about it. But the mission of our athletes is to represent our country at a high level, to remind us that the war is not over, it continues, and Russia is the aggressor. We will defend our position.

- Will you be competing in two distances in Paris?

- Yes, 800 and 1500 meters. You can't choose one or the other. There are two distances, two chances. I will use every opportunity to the maximum.

- But recently you have been training and even competing in open water. How did it help you and did you think about continuing?

- Well, after 10 kilometers, a half-mile seems to be like a sprint (smiles). So maybe, on the one hand, it was good.

- Didn't you want to compete for awards in open water and at the Olympics in Paris?

- I'm more worried about my health. Because swimming in this river... (Laughs) Of course, there was a possibility, and many swimmers from the pool showed up, people who didn't even have any experience in open water. Well, I wish them only health after the swim in the Seine.

I just remember when we had the 2022 World Cup here in Paris, and we were swimming in some canal. And I just remember taking off my suit, and underneath I was all green, with some roses and something else.

- A new swimming pool was built for the Olympics, and the organizers promised that they would make a state-of-the-art cleaning system and that they were making a bowl for the first time, that the water would be prepared perfectly.

- Well, the water will not be like that only for me. It will be the same for everyone. And what's great about the Olympics is that at least for these three weeks, everyone is in the same conditions. Everyone lives in the same conditions, eats in the same place. Of course, there is still a big question about the training conditions, which cannot be compared with other leading countries. Unfortunately...

- By the way, what is your menu on the day of the performance?

- Everything I mentioned before: pasta and meat. In this respect, a competition day is not much different from a training day. In training, you also need to give your best and show a good, good result. That's why at such competitions everything has to be worked out to the point of automaticity: you have to know what time to do what to do so that everything really happens as it should.

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