“You don’t get used to it. » At the edge of the pool, Olesia Zaitseva lets a few tears flow. This former Ukrainian artistic swimmer trains two of her compatriots in this discipline, twin sisters Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva. She started following them in 2016, when these young swimming prodigies, natives of Kharkiv, a city located 30 kilometers from the Russian border, were 14 years old. But, since February 2022, the war has disrupted the training routine of the two bronze medalists at the Tokyo Olympic Games (OJ), in 2021, in the ballet event.
Swimming, repeating movements, resting, moving around has become a race strewn with pitfalls for swimmers, several times European and world champions. And when their trainer mentions the war, “which still seems incredible today”she can’t stop herself from sobbing. “The sound of the bombs, the stress, the bombings that we saw from our window… We worry constantly. »
However, Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva, who qualified for the Paris Olympics in February, during the world championships in Doha, must continue to train. For the final stretch in their preparation, they left their country at war and their devastated city. After a stint at the Saint-Denis Olympic Aquatic Center (Seine-Saint-Denis), for a stage of the World Cup on the weekend of May 4 and 5, and before a competition which will take them to Canada, they settled in for two weeks at the Nemausa nautical stadium in Nîmes.
“It’s a kind of big emotional gap for them,” confides their translator. But the conditions are almost ideal. “It’s really good. The swimming pool is superb, the water very clean, heated. We have slots with the pool for us”appreciates Vladyslava, nicknamed Vlada.
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In the water, the two athletes show nothing of their daily life as young women haunted by war. While, on the adjacent lines, the Gard swimmers accumulate breaststrokes, they tirelessly repeat their movements, under the attentive gaze of Olesia Zaitseva. “They are both very strong physically. They are also very creative, and very complicit, confides their coach. But what they have endured since the start of the war is unthinkable. Sometimes I wonder where they get their strength from. »
“We never considered stopping”
However, the news quickly resurfaces. And they certainly don’t want to ignore it. On the contrary. The twins chose music called War Stories for their technical program presented at the Games. Smiles on their lips, melancholy looks, Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva talk about their ” new life “.
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