Author: Ihor Stelmach

It was set up as an event to support a cause that hits close to home for so many Edmontonians. The pre-season game between the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Elks and the Calgary Stamp-eders on June 3 was designated “Stand with Ukraine” night at Common-wealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. Net proceeds from the $15 ticket...

Real Madrid’s Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin decided against leaving the club on a loan and chose to fight for his spot with the club instead. Feeling comfortable and settled in the city, Lunin opted to continue his battle for regular minutes under head coach Carlo Ancelotti. Lunin signed with Real Madrid back in 2018, arriving...

The Russian invasion has had a profound effect on virtually all sports in Ukraine. One athletic group that doesn’t immediately come to mind is the Ukrainian surf community, which was progressing nicely and close to gaining international status before the full-scale war began on February 24. Surfing is still in its infant stages in Ukraine,...

Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk and Belarus’s Victoria Azarenka were set for a politically-charged U.S. Open grudge match after advancing to a second round showdown on August 30. The backdrop to the round-of-64 matchup was the simmering tension between players as a result of Russia’s war on Ukraine. One week prior, Azarenka was axed from an exhibition...

Team Ukraine won 35 gold medals and 74 total medals at the 2022 Warrior Games, hosted by the U.S. Army, which took place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla., on August 19-28. The team of 33 Ukrainian athletes won seven medals in cycling, 17 in...

Cale Makar’s trophy case is running out of space. Colorado’s premier defenseman became the franchise’s third Conn Smythe Trophy winner – joining Joe Sakic (1996) and Patrick Roy (2001) – after his Avalan-che defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Stanley Cup Playoffs on June 26. The...

The world’s top tennis players have been holding serve over one another from August 29 through September 11. On August 24, when a few of the sport’s biggest stars gathered on one of tennis’ biggest stages, the message was simple: peace. Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff led a star-studded exhibition event at the...

Her name was Lola and she was not a showgirl, but she did attend the Western and Southern Open tennis tournament dressed to kill with a Ukrainian flag around her shoulders and a Ukrainian floral wreath atop her head. She was removed from the tournament grounds on August 14 after a Russian player complained to...

Ukraine completed their stunning performance at the 2022 Roma European Aquatics Championships with a total of 10 gold medals, eight of which were won in artistic swimming. Marta Fiedina and the Aleksiiva twins, Maryna and Vladyslava, each finished with six gold medals. The relentless Aleksiiva twin sisters continued their domination of duet events with a...

The second edition of the multi-sport European Championships held on August 11-21 in Munich, Germany, featured nine Olympic sports: athletics, beach volleyball, canoe sprint, cycling, gymnastics, rowing, sport climbing, table tennis and triathlon. Ukraine sent a team of 157 athletes (76 women and 81 men) to the championships to compete in all nine sports. Russia...

The stands were not occupied with fans amid the ongoing risks of bombs and missiles falling from the skies, while the pitch was minus many elite foreign players. Nonetheless, Ukraine’s football league restarted as Russia’s war on the country continues. Much of the impetus to resume a new season in distraught circumstances came as league...

HARTFORD, Conn. – They were discovered by a New York Times photo essay which documented nine Ukrainian children performing a play in a bomb shelter in Lviv, Ukraine, two months after Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine on February 24. In the middle of a war, the group decided to put on a play....