"We heard the explosions": how Mahuchikh spent two days in Paris talking about Russia's attacks on Ukraine, and we were looking for croissants for her to celebrate the Olympic gold medal

Being at the Olympics and watching our athletes, you realize how important their mission is in the face of war and Ukraine's dependence on foreign support. This is especially true of the top athletes, including the brilliant Paris 2024 winner Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who gave so many interviews in France that it is probably hard to say for sure where the workload is greater - in the jumping sector or afterwards, under the guns of cameras and surrounded by recorders.

After winning the high jump, Yaroslava`s journey from the stadium's exit to the mixing area definitely took more than an hour, as she kept stopping to comment to accredited TV channels along the way. Mahuchikh probably spent the same amount of time or a little less talking to a recorder, both in Ukrainian and English. And then she went to a press conference.

The Ukrainian star's communication with foreign media continued over the next two days. These were such media monsters as CNN, ABC, NBC, Reuters AP, Guardian and many others.

The foreign press was interested in everything. For some reason, they paid special attention to the sleeping bag in which Yaroslava rests between attempts, although the topic is not new - the athlete has been doing this for some time, and both Ukrainian and world media had been paying attention to it before Paris.

But then they started talking about the blue-green "bag" again, and Mahuchikh patiently explained that this was the advice she received from one of her coaches, Serhiy Stepanov. After all, sitting too long between jumps leads to stagnation of blood in the legs, so now, when preparing for a new attempt, the Ukrainian lies down and counts clouds or closes her eyes and focuses on her breathing.

Of course, a lot of attention is paid to the war with Russia, but we are not interested in any details of the fighting or the attitude of our athletes towards the Russians, but rather in the mental impact.

About the current situation in the country. How we are taking it all out mentally and physically. In general, how strong our people are.

"Sport is interesting for them, but they don't understand how we live in a country at war, not to mention how we compete. We tell them as much as we can. In every interview, I say how grateful I am to the military. And it's not just words, it really comes from the heart," Iryna Gerashchenko, the bronze medalist in the high jump at the 2024 Olympic Games, confirmed to us.

But the girls never tire of reminding the world what is really happening in Ukraine while the sporting celebration continues in the arenas and streets of Paris.

"We won our medals for our people, for our defenders. And this gives Ukrainian athletes the opportunity to talk about our situation, about the war in Ukraine, because we really want peace. Unfortunately, this is not possible even during the Olympics, because Russia does not stop its attacks on my hometown and other cities in Ukraine. While we were jumping, there were many air raids and explosions in my region. It's very hard, but we are fighting on every field," Mahuchikh said.

"Of course, I'm worried about my parents, my sister, because they are in Dnipro. They wrote to me: "We heard explosions, it was very loud". And deep down, I want to be with them because they are my family. I keep in mind that one day I may lose them," Yaroslava admitted to the media.

As for her winning height of 2 meters, the Ukrainian said she was ready to jump higher. There was also some nervousness when at the last moment the bar failed to hold at 2.02 meters twice: "I was going to go out with a bang, but I didn't finish it. This is what we talk about, that there is something to work on and improve in order to go out and take higher heights. But when I realized that I had become an Olympic champion, I calmed down and exhaled."

At the age of 22, Mahuchikh has won every competition that exists on our planet and, on top of that, she has updated Stefka Kostadinova's world record, which was considered to be eternal. But Yaroslava does not believe that 2.10 meters is her limit. Neither does Olga Saladukha, the president of the FLAU. In a conversation with us, she noted that the Ukrainian was in such great shape at those historic competitions that she seemed capable of overcoming 2.15.

Yaroslava herself is not going to rest on her laurels either, because she has a Swedish pole vaulter in front of her, Arman Duplantis, who never tires of updating world records and did it again in Paris, clearing the bar at 6.25 meters. So the Ukrainian is going to work even harder to improve her record.

By the way, in addition to the gold medal, after the competition we prepared a little gift or, rather, a treat for Mahuchikh. After all, during our last conversation with Yaroslava on the eve of the Olympic Games, we discussed Paris, its beauty, magic and... croissants, which the jumper loves. But since such food is not allowed before the competition, especially for fragile high-fliers, we agreed that we would celebrate the gold medal with French pastries.

Yaroslava fulfilled her part of the deal, so we had to think about where to find croissants in Paris on Sunday night, because, first of all, on this day most bakeries and shops are either closed or prepare fresh delicacies only in the morning. Here we are grateful to our colleagues who also joined this quest and managed to persuade the employees of one of the bakeries to make three fresh croissants in the evening.

It turned out that after several hours of competition and communication with the press, the pastries came in handy. "Of course, I ate them," the athlete told us with a smile the next day.

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