Fury, hope and changing gear with a sword - Ukraine's Paris preparations

Other athletes person recovered their ain ways to lend to nan warfare effort. Wheelchair fencer Andrii Demchuk crossed nan separator to Poland pinch his woman and 2 children aft nan invasion.

After settling his family successful Warsaw, he began helping different Ukrainian refugees. He ferried them from nan separator to nan Polish capital, earlier returning pinch tents, sleeping bags and instrumentality for nan Ukrainian army.

He besides delivered jeeps to nan separator – albeit successful unconventional style. As a limb amputee, Demchuk usually drives an automatic. The jeeps were manual.

“It was a spot of a problem because I don’t person a limb to push nan clutch,” he says.

So – ingeniously - he utilized his fencing beard instead. “A surgery rapier tin push nan clutch perfectly,” he explains, demonstrating his method pinch an imaginary sword.

“I delivered 7 jeeps this way.”

Together pinch 2 Polish fencing friends, Grzegorz Pluta and Stefan Makowski, he besides began visiting section schools.

“We realised we needed to bring Polish and Ukrainian children together," Demchuk says.

"The Ukrainian kids were traumatised – and location were immoderate differences.”

They visited astir 40 schools – and talked to astir 10,000 children.

“We wanted to show nan kids really athletics tin return your mind disconnected your problems and that group who are abnormal don’t springiness up and tin still break barriers.”

At this point, Demchuk realised that if he didn’t return to training, he wouldn’t suffice for nan Paralympics, truthful Pluta and Makowski invited him to train astatine their nine successful Warsaw.

Most of Ukraine's Para-fencers are successful akin circumstances, having had to time off their homeland. Demchuk trained 1 of his team-mates - Nadiia Doloh - aft her coach was incapable to travel her to Poland.

Despite nan disruption, Ukraine’s Para-fencing squad vanished apical of nan badge array astatine this year’s European Championships.