Sawt Falasteen - Ukraine superstar Mahuchikh brings 'good vibes' to her war-torn country

The 23-year-old high jumper has had an annus mirabilis "competing for her compatriots to give them good vibes", lighting up Paris on two occasions.

In July the engaging and thoughtful Mahuchikh broke the 37-year-old women's world record with a jump of 2.10 metres at Charlety Stadium and then a few weeks later was crowned Olympic champion.

"Paris will be in my heart all my life," she told AFP via Zoom from Ukraine.

It was one of the lighter moments as she reflected on returning home to Dnipro after the season and seeing the destruction wreaked since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion in February 2022.

"I see damaged buildings, destroyed buildings. I say this and I want to cry," she said.

"Several weeks ago rockets hit a building only 200 metres from my house.It was so loud!

"You know our people are so strong but I live this hope that it will finish as soon as possible and with victory."

Such are the circumstances in Ukraine that Mahuchikh had to weigh up the emotional pull of returning to Dnipro with the risks attached.

She left Ukraine shortly after the invasion, admitting that leaving her family, especially her father Oleksiy, had been a huge wrench.

"To come back home was a big question - can I or not because every day (there are) air raid sirens and rocket attacks?" she said.

"But it is my home! It is the place where I grew up and I want to come back to my home and my people.

"I spent like almost my whole life here. I am 23 years old and of course they should be the best years of my life.

"But those of a similar age and I cannot enjoy a normal life. We are not able to go to the cinema and enjoy a whole screening for example because we have air raid sirens and have go to a safe place."

- 'Fly like a swallow' -

Mahuchikh, who is also the reigning world outdoor champion, may have to train abroad like many of her fellow athletes but she has contributed to the war effort.

She has helped fund wheelchairs for disabled orphans and she donated her prize money from the Olympics "to our army and an animal shelter," she said.

"I love animals and for me it is really important to help them.

"Of course people can help each other but cats cannot help other cats, so for me it was important to donate money," added Mahuchikh, who during the interview was stroking her cat 'Black'.

She has also visited the wounded in Kyiv and Dnipro, bearing her gold medal.

"It is difficult to see," she says of what she witnessed.

"However, when I come with my gold medal it gives them some fond memories about our lives, not about the war.

"When you start talking about war you see how their faces change.

"I try to say nothing about the war as I know they saw a lot of things, bad things in the war.

"I try to only give them motivation and hope."

On the upside, though, she was able to show in what was an "emotional reunion" her father -- "who always believed in me" -- the medal.

He at least had seen her performance which was not the case for her world record.

"My father did not see the world record because he thought I had finished at 2.07m and the livestream had ended," she says, chuckling.

"After that some friends called him saying 'congratulations on the world record'.

"He says 'world record? But she jumped 2.07', They say 'no she jumped 2.10' and he gasps 'oh my gosh I missed it!'"

She says she did not expect the world record to come so soon, but she had a sense on the morning of the competition that something special was on the cards.

As for her passion for the high jump she comes up with -- appropriately -- an animal analogy.

"I am ready to fly like a swallow," she said.

"Your body takes off for several seconds, you fly ... it is really fantastic those seconds."

U.Shaheen--SF-PST