Oleksandr Pielieshenko, a two-time European weightlifting champion who represented Ukraine in the 2016 Summer Olympics, died while fighting on the frontlines for his country against Russia, the Ukrainian Olympic Committee said Monday. He was 30.
In a post on Telegram, the committee wrote that Pielieshenko “died in the war with the enemy,” ESPN reported.
“From the first days of the full-scale invasion, Oleksandr joined the ranks of the Armed Forces. Yesterday we received the sad news of his death,” the committee wrote, according to The Guardian.
Olympic weightlifter and two-time European champion Oleksandr Pielieshenko, 30, was killed on the frontlines of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation announced on Monday. https://t.co/zsKFUfjXle
— ESPN (@espn) May 6, 2024
Pielieshenko took fourth at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in the men’s 85-kilogram category and won gold at the sport’s European championships in 2016 and 2017, Reuters reported. He was banned from the sport after failing a drug test in 2018, according to the news outlet.
He missed winning a medal at the Olympics by 5 kilograms, ESPN reported.
“War takes the best of us. This is a very heavy loss for the entire weightlifting community of Ukraine. Heroes do not die,” weightlifting coach and Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation (UWF) board member Viktor Slobodianiuk said in a statement, according to the BBC.
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