Calm the waters: Ukrainian Olympic artistic swimmers Vladyslava (left) and Maryna Aleksiiva during a training session in Kyiv on April 6, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. — AFP
KHARKIV (Ukraine): Air raid sirens wailed as artistic swimmers Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva rested on their only free day from a rigorous training programme in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
The sisters are stars of Ukraine’s Olympic-medal-winning team, which returned to the city to train for next summer’s Paris Olympics, despite proximity to the front and regular bouts of shelling.
After Russia invaded, their team moved to Italy and then Kyiv, before returning to Ukraine’s second largest city, known for its universities and cultural scene.
“Sometimes, during the air alerts, we’re a bit worried about what’s going on,” said Vladyslava.
“It feels like there is a war on,” she said, comparing Kharkiv to the relative calm of the capital.
Their parents, relatives and friends live in the city, which is a regular target for Russian strikes, with fears growing of an uptick during winter.
“There was a lot of shelling in the winter last year. We’ll see what happens. But for now, we will stay in Kharkiv,” Vladyslava said.
On a recent Sunday – the only day they do not train – the 22-year-old twins had coffee in the leafy Shevchenko park with Vladyslava’s 23-year-old husband.
They went to Maryna’s flat for a lunch of tuna salad and Japanese sencha tea.
Vladyslava, who married in February, lives in the building next door. The sisters bought their flats before the war but only moved in recently.
Maryna’s has an upstairs room with a record player where she plays her grandfather’s Pink Floyd and Beatles albums.
A table casually displayed a medal collection including her team bronze from the Tokyo Olympics.
‘Most important time’
The sisters’ closeness was evident as they sat cross-legged on the sofa, finishing each other’s sentences.
“This is really the most important time in our lives,” said Vladyslava.
“Regardless of the war,” interjected Maryna.
Their team are hoping to qualify for the Olympics less than nine months away, in the women-only discipline formerly known as synchronised swimming.
Their training pool in Kharkiv was damaged last September by a Russian missile and glass in the blown-out windows has yet to be replaced.
“They patched it up somehow with chipboard,” said Maryna.
There is also no generator at the pool if centralised heating fails but Maryna said the pool itself is intact.
“The water is warm,” Maryna said.
“You can train as long as you want,” added Vladyslava.
“There are no people. That’s why our coach really likes it,” Maryna concluded, just as an air raid siren rang out.
“It’s normal. Every day maybe five or six times. At night also,” Maryna continued calmly.
Sometimes during training, they have heard explosions, she said, and “had to run to the basement in wet swimsuits”.
Artistic swimming has an image of fixed smiles and sparkly costumes but it is physically demanding, combining swimming and acrobatics.
Judging ‘a lottery’
The team’s trainer for over two decades, Svitlana Sayidova, is from Kharkiv. She left after the war began but has since returned.
A childhood photo in Maryna’s kitchen shows Sayidova with a group of young swimmers. The twins pose in the front row clutching medals.
The Aleksiiva sisters first tried the sport as children under local trainer Maryna Krykunova, who now designs swimsuits for them.
“When they just entered the pool and I saw them, I was sure that they would be future stars,” she said, recalling they were tall for their age and had the right build for the sport.
“It was clear to everyone the girls would have a very great future.”
The International Olympic Committee has not yet made a final ruling on whether Russians can compete in the Paris Olympics.
The twins stressed they do not want the Russians there.
“We haven’t met the Russian national team since the beginning of the war, and we hope we won’t see them,” said Maryna.
They also have another concern over the upcoming competition.
Artistic swimming has a new scoring system aimed at greater objectivity, focused less on artistic performance and more on technical achievements.
Krykunova decried the judging as “a lottery”.
“It looks very unartistic and awkward,” said Maryna, worried that aesthetically weaker teams can win.
“We must do everything possible and impossible so that these judges respond to all the elements we have included in our programme – so everything is perfect,” Vladyslava stressed.
“We will try very hard.” — AFP
