Boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk comes to Paris to support Ukrainian athletes at Olympics

PARIS (AP) — Heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk has come to Paris to assist Ukrainian athletes on the Olympics amid conflict at house.

On Monday, he visited the Ukrainian Home in Paris and from there he watched the fencing competitors by which Ukrainian Olga Kharlan received the bronze medal in ladies’s particular person saber, marking the primary medal for Ukraine on the 2024 Olympics.

“My private want was, and I in all probability knew, that Olga is a kind of individuals who would convey a medal for Ukraine,” Usyk advised the Related Press minutes after Ukrainian fencer received the medal.

Usyk expressed hope that there can be extra medals because the competitions proceed. He emphasised that the presence of the Ukrainian crew is important, contemplating the each day missile strikes, broken sports activities infrastructure, and Russian occupation of areas that have been house to many athletes.

“We’re at conflict. However our athletes nonetheless got here,” he mentioned. “They’re combating.”

On each of his arms, he has tattoos of the Olympic rings. One in every of them is labeled “London 2012,” the place he received the gold medal within the heavyweight class.

“We assist all our Olympians who’re right here in Paris representing our nation,” he mentioned. “The extra awards for us, the higher.”

One in every of Ukraine’s most outstanding athletes is the boxer Oleksandr Khyzhniak, who misplaced his gold-medal last in Tokyo and is now again to combat for it once more on the 2024 Olympics.

“He has unfinished enterprise that he has set for himself, which is the Olympic gold,” Usyk mentioned. “Alex is striving for it.”

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