PARIS — It’s Sunday night at Stade de France, and Yaroslava Mahuchikh is here but not here. On the other end of the stadium, 12 men are trying to medal in the hammer throw; on the track, runners in three events are trying to advance to the finals; in Mahuchikh’s hometown, Ukrainian troops are trying to save their country.
“It’s not possible to focus only on track, to high jump,” she will say later, when she is asked if she can clear her mind when she competes. “Our families in Ukraine … we have friends who are fighting …. I cannot forget about this. I remember, always.”
The high jump bar is set at 1.86 meters to start. In early July, Mahuchikh broke the 37-year-old world record, jumping 2.10 meters. The next day, Russia bombed five Ukrainian cities, including Dnipro, where Mahuchikh grew up. Mahuchikh knows she can jump higher than 1.86 meters, so she passes on this round. The bombs killed at least 31 people. Mahuchikh makes her first jump, at 1.91 meters, and clears the bar on her first attempt. One of the bombs hit a children’s hospital.
The bar is raised to 1.95 meters. “A lot of rocket attacks to my city,” Mahuchikh will say later. Three jumpers fail to clear 1.95; eight remain. “We had a lot of alarms and a lot of explosions in my region,” she says.
The bar is raised to 1.98 meters. “We fight to represent our country, and to show people we are strong,” Mahuchikh will say. Six jumpers fail to clear 1.98; only Mahuchikh and Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers remain. Between jumps, Olyslagers opens her journal and writes her thoughts. Between jumps, Mahuchikh climbs in a sleeping bag to calm her mind..
The bar is raised to 2.0 meters. When Russia invaded, Maruchikh packed belongings in her car and fled Ukraine, and now she is not there but she is there. Maruchikh clears 2.0 meters on her first attempt; Olyslagers knocks the bar down on her first two. Four days ago, there were reports of explosions in Dnipro.
Clap … clap …
Olyslagers puts her hands together to get the crowd going. For the fans at Stade de France who showed up primarily for the men’s 100-meter final, Olyslagers is a revelation. Before each jump, she looks like a giggly kid who doesn’t think she can blow out all the candles on her birthday cake. She talks to herself and doesn’t care how it looks; everybody in the stadium can see her lips move on the big screens. She grins after each jump, whether she was successful or not, and she has a smile as wide as the sea.
Clap … clap …
On her third attempt, Olyslagers clears 2.0. This doesn’t happen often, but it has already happened here: Two Ukrainains and two Australians have medaled in this event. Ukraine’s Iryna Gerashchenko and Australia’s Eleanor Patterson share bronze. Australia’s Olyslagers and Ukraine’s Mahuchikh will get gold and silver, in some order.
The bar is raised to 2.02 meters. Olyslagers fails to clear it on her first two attempts. But so does Mahuchikh. Olyslagers needs to succeed on her third attempt to have a chance at gold; otherwise, Mahuchikh will win because she has needed fewer attempts to get here.
“I want to say that of course we won medals for our Ukrainian people and our defenders,” Mahuchikh will say later. Olyslagers lifts off. “We want peace,” Mahuchikh will say. Olyslagers knocks the bar over.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh has won Olympic gold. On the other side of Stade de France, Mykhaylo Kokhan, another native of Dnipro, has taken bronze in the hammer throw. Mahuchikh, Kokhan and Gerashchenko carry the Ukraine flag around the stadium to celebrate.
Joy takes many forms, and we need them all. At the medalists’ press conference after the high jump, two Australians and two Ukrainians smile and compliment each other and try to make the most of their time behind microphones. Olyslagers encourages kids to be patient as they chase their dreams. Manuchikh urges people to remember her country.
The silver medalist says, “Give yourself at least 10 years.” The gold medalist says, “Sometimes I forget that I’m only 22.”
