Author: Ihor Stelmach

Far away from Ukraine, on another continent, two Ukrainian soccer clubs are flying their country’s national flag, demonstrating solidarity with the people of their homeland and raising awareness about the ongoing Russian war on Ukraine through the sport of football. Just like many other lower league clubs, the Ukrainian Nationals of Philadelphia and the New...

Ukraine’s Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling team relocated to Indiana for training this summer. The team arrived on July 14 thanks to the efforts of Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, who met with a Ukrainian ambassador in Washington, D.C., shortly after Russia launched a full-scale war on Ukraine. Holcomb’s offer to support Ukraine at the meeting prompted the...

Yevhen Pronin, president of Ukraine’s track and field federation, left the front lines in the middle of July to accompany some 22 Ukrainian athletes to the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Ore. Only four men and 18 women made it to Oregon, with the other 20-plus men unable to attend due to military commitments in...

Denys Berinchyk was on the same Ukrainian Olympic boxing team as Vasyl Lomachenko, Oleksandr Usyk and Taras Shelestyuk. He is equally colorful with his crazy ring walks dressed as Mario, Hulk and characters from Peaky Blinders. He crossed over to bare-knuckle and beat Conor McGregor’s friend Artem Lobov. He is not that well known in...

Heading into this year’s World Games, Las Vegas odds makers did not have Ukraine listed as a top-five favorite among the countries competing. Handicappers examined all of the obstacles created by the ongoing war with Russia: Ukrainian athletes have been scattered all over Europe; those athletes have had a lack of consistent coaching and inadequate...

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected appeals by Russia’s national soccer federation and four clubs on July 15. Russia is still barred from the UEFA Champions League and other international soccer competitions. CAS upheld decisions made by FIFA and UEFA which excluded Russian national teams and clubs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Their...

For a youngster in North America aspiring to a professional hockey career, there are two four-year plans: in Canada it is a major junior program, while in the United States it is college hockey. The Canadian Hockey League is comprised of three major junior leagues: the Ontario Hockey Leaguem (OHL), the Quebec Major Junior Hockey...

The Ukrainian men’s curling team shocked the world with their stunning silver medal win at the European C-Division Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania, in early May. The athletes fled war in their home country, gained temporary refuge in Finland and were gifted the necessary supplies, equipment, training facilities, meals and lodging to prepare them for the...

During the summit of sports ministers in early July, Ukraine’s Minister of Youth and Sports Vadym Huttsait issued an official statement calling for his international partners to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing at all sports competitions, including under neutral flags. “Russians and Belarusians have no place next to representatives of the civilized world...

Before the start of the April 25 first-round playoff game against the Mississauga Steelheads, the Barrie Colts presented two checks, each in the amount of $10,000, to the Red Cross Ukraine Relief Fund. The home team selected their Ukraine-born, first-year defenseman Artur Cholach to take part in the presentation. Unfortunately, Cholach got the word shortly...

FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, is allowing foreign players affected by Russia’s war on Ukraine to suspend their contracts for one full year through June 2023. The ruling was in response to the announcement that Ukraine’s football federation is expecting to resume men’s and women’s matches in Ukraine in a safe manner this coming August....

As the Russian war on Ukraine continues, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), traveled to Kyiv for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 3. The two spoke about how the unprovoked Russian full-scale war on Ukraine has impacted the country’s sports infrastructure and the IOC’s continuing recommendation that Russian...