To honor the Olympic Games: presenting an emotional multimedia project about the unbending spirit of Ukrainian athletes
The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine presented “The Will to Win,” a multimedia exhibition held with the support of the Office of the President of Ukraine, at the Gulliver Shopping Center in Kyiv. The project is dedicated to Ukrainian athletes participating in the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
It is a photo exhibition and a series of documentaries about how Ukrainians train for the Olympics during the full-scale war. No budget funds were allocated for the project — the MHP-Gromadi Charitable Foundation supported it.
“Our enemy made every effort to prevent us from participating in the Olympic Games this year. It destroys our stadiums, swimming pools, sports facilities, and kills our Olympians. russia did everything it could to make us refuse to go to Paris. However, only time, strength, and courage really matter. Ukraine will be in Paris, while the russian flag will not,” said Olena Kovalska, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
“The Olympic Games are the place for our messages to the world community to be broadcast, and The Will to Win exhibition will be the heart of the Ukrainian house in Paris,” said Matviy Bidnyi, head of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine. He also noted that sport is an integral part of Ukrainian national and civic identity, and the stories of Ukrainian athletes demonstrate to the world our incredible will-to-win spirit.
MHP-Gromadi Charitable Foundation sees shaping the national identity as one of the key operational tasks. For more than 2 years of full-scale war, the Foundation has allocated UAH 70+ million for cultural projects: restoration of unique local museums, support of the “Cinema for Victory!” national tour, organizing a tour of military hospitals by the KOZAK SYSTEM band, and promoting the publication about Vasyl Stus in the “Local History” magazine. The Will to Win project, which has already become an important tool used to present the consequences of russian aggression to the world, was no exception.
“The world should realize that despite all the challenges of these dark times, Ukraine can still both fight on the battlefield and win in sports. It is our identity — the will for victory and unbending spirit — that impressed the whole planet in the first months of a full-scale war and will impress even more during the Paris Olympics,” emphasized Yurii Melnyk, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the MHP-Gromadi Charitable Foundation.
The main characters of the exhibition are Viktoriia Onoprienko, a Ukrainian gymnast, European champion, and finalist of the Tokyo Olympics; Zhan Beleniuk, a Ukrainian athlete, Greco-Roman wrestler, and silver medalist of the Olympic Games; Oleksandra Pascal, an 8-year-old gymnast awarded the “Courage During the War” during the Children-Heroes campaign, who lost her leg during the russian attack on Odesa in 2022; Yuliia Levchenko, a Ukrainian track athlete from Bakhmut, finalist of the Olympic Games, and champion of the Youth Olympic Games (2014); Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva, Ukrainian synchronized swimming athletes from Kharkiv, and bronze medalists of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games; Serhiy Stakhovsky, a Ukrainian tennis player, winner of four ATP singles titles, four ATP doubles titles, Ukraine’s top tennis player, currently Master Sergeant of the Centre of Special Operations “A,” SSU.
Documentaries and the photo exhibition were created by the team of the “Watch Ukrainian!” Association: Serhiy Mykhalchuk was the project photographer, Kadim Tarasov — the film director, and Andriy Rizol — the producer of the entire project.
“Tight deadlines made production even more complicated: we had only 20 shooting days. However, we were powered up and inspired by the very topic and characters. Their commitment to their work and the stories themselves created this content. The entire creative workflow took 50 days, but the result was worth the effort!” — added Andriy Rizol, producer and head of the “Watch Ukrainian!” Association.
This month, the photo exhibition will be open to the public in the Gulliver Shopping Center. Then it will be transported to Paris.
