Ukraine launched a new postage stamp to support its Olympic athletes as it sent its smallest-ever national team to the Paris Games amid the nearly 29- month long war with Russia.
Only 140 Ukrainian athletes will compete at the Olympic Games in Paris, the smallest number in the history of Ukraine’s participation in the Games.
A total of 10,500 athletes are expected to participate in the 2024 which has representation from over 200 countries.
The international multi-sport event is scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11 but some competitions will start on July 24.
The 2024 Olympics marks the third time that Paris hosts the Games and the city’s first in 100 years. While Paris is the main host city, events will be held in 16 other cities across metropolitan France.
For the first time in the history of the Summer Olympic Games, the opening ceremony will not be held in a stadium. The opening ceremony is set to be held in the heart of the city alongside its main artery: the Seine.
The unique feature of Paris 2024 is that it will be the first Olympics in history to achieve numerical gender parity on the field of play. According to news reports, an equal number of female and male athletes will be participating in the largest sporting event in the world.
Vlada Kharkova, a fencer who gathered with other athletes and officials to launch Ukraine’s Olympic postage stamp in the centre of Kyiv late on Friday, told Reuters, ‘We have spent countless hours without electricity, without water, in darkness, in cold, in heat. I think we have gone through everything.”
The fencer added, “These conditions made us stronger and we are ready to show the whole world that despite everything we are Ukrainians, and we are unbreakable as the Ukrainian nation.”
Russia’s invasion killed athletes and coaches, forced many to flee the fighting and damaged sports facilities. Frequent air raid alerts and extended power blackouts caused by Russian bombardments interrupt training.
A set of six postage stamps features sports in which Ukraine has previously won awards and medals, including fencing, judo, tennis, canoeing, weightlifting and shooting.
Data from Ukraine’s Sports Ministry showed that 479 athletes and coaches have been killed since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022. More than 500 sports facilities have been destroyed, including 15 Olympic training bases.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus should be banned from international competition but it has since allowed them to qualify for the Paris Games as neutrals.
A total of 25 athletes from Russia and Belarus have been cleared to compete at the Paris Olympics, which open on Friday.
The goal of the Olympics is to build a peaceful and better world and to show our youth how to compete with a spirit of solidarity and fair play.
(With Inputs From Reuters)
