Sawt Falasteen - War at home drives Ukrainian gymnast Verniaiev in Olympics return

"We come here not only for sport," the 30-year-old said Wednesday after men trained for the first time at Bercy Arena, where their qualifying competition kicks off on Saturday.

"Of course it's our first job," he said, but raising awareness runs a close second.

"Every day in my country, people die, animals die, buildings (are) broken -- sport buildings, civilian people's buildings," he said of the war that has raged since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Recalling the recent bombing of a children's hospital he and teammates had visited, Verniaiev said it was hard to focus on sport.

"How can you think about sport, about gymnastics, about competition when you see news like this," he said. "So we have what we have, but of course we did our (gymnastics) job (to the) maximum with what we have.

"But when people told me about 'sport, it's not politics,' no, sorry -- I don't agree with this."

Verniaiev, who won parallel bars gold and all-around silver eight years ago in Rio de Janeiro, knows the better the team's results the bigger the platform.

The thought of returning to the podium has helped drive him and his teammates through training disrupted by bombings and daily reports of civilian casualties.

"It's not possible to explain to you," he said. "We have a siren alarm and you don't know how many times it happens. It's possible to be 15 minutes, it's possible to be five hours. It's possible to be fake. It's possible to have bombed our city."

Nevertheless, Ukraine rallied to edge Britain for the team title at the European Championships earlier this year.

Verniaiev was part of that team and also won all-around silver having returned to the international stage in 2023 after serving a suspension for doping after a positive test for the heart drug meldonium.

His original four-year ban was reduced to two years upon appeal.

Having missed the Tokyo Olympics, Verniaiev was relishing his return to the Games.

"I'm happy I'm back," he said. "I dreamed about this the last couple of years, four years, of course."

He said he could have used another six months to be in peak form, but while he expects China and Japan to duel for men's team gold he believes Ukraine can be in the hunt for bronze along with Britain and a rapidly improving United States.

"We really have strong team," he said. "So if we all think about our individual job, we have big team results.

"We need to help each other, but first you need to think about your work, your job."

J.AbuShaban--SF-PST