You cannot imagine the conditions in which sports are played in Ukraine

Vítek explained why he decided to make a film about Ukrainian athletes, not just professional ones, but children: “After the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine, we got into a community of athletes that accommodated war refugees, who had already come with children who play sports. Two young hockey players lived with us for a year and a half, they were nine and thirteen years old at the time, with their mother and their hockey coach Volodymyr, who was 65. After a year and a half, they decided to return to Dnipro, where the winter stadium started to operate, and it looked like they would be able to play there normally, but we were always in contact, so I learned about how sports work in Ukraine, what restrictions it has.”

He decided to make a film about Ukrainian athletes when a photo came in of a photo of a hockey club player who died at the front being hung above the ice at the winter stadium in Dnipro. “I realized the difference – in America, the jerseys of club legends are hung under the ceiling and it’s always a great honor. Photos of those killed are posted here – hockey players, football players, basketball players.”

The war also changed me, admits the director of the film about life in the Kharkiv metro station, which was turned into a shelter

A useless war

At the same time, Vítek went through the statistics of how many athletes died during the war, whether they were killed by Russian rockets deep in the rear or volunteered and fell on the front: “A lot of athletes volunteered in the first phase of the war. Since the beginning of the war, approximately 450 Ukrainian athletes have fallen or been killed in Ukraine, and more than 500 sports venues have been totally destroyed.” She can therefore understand when a Ukrainian athlete does not shake hands with her Russian rival.

The team filmed interviews with athletes and relatives of those who fell. “Sometimes they felt he was a hero, but somewhere they didn’t fully understand the fate that had come or might come.”

The entire film team was pleasantly surprised by how people approached him, even though they had to talk about very painful facts: “The survivors of the killed athletes and everyone treated us very kindly. Everyone spoke flawlessly. Even grandfathers of athletes. They weren’t one-word answers, but they were actually able to tell the story coherently from beginning to end.”

The film does not focus only on one fate or one city: “We traveled all over Ukraine, Lviv, Kiev, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and then we returned from below. War fatigue is already felt in the East. We have to realize that there are maybe 12 air raid alerts per day, during which everyone should hide somewhere in the shelters. They’ve kind of given up on that. They take the alarm as a matter of course. It sounds crazy, but in two years they’ve gotten used to it so much that when the siren goes off, the shelters aren’t completely packed.”

He also described the absurd nature of the competitions: “The number of spectators is actually equal to the number of people who can fit in the shelter of the sports field. In Dnipro, we were at a basketball game, at their Super League, where there were 600 spectators. Twice during the match, the siren sounded, the players went to the dressing rooms underground and the spectators had to hide in the shelter in the underground hall. We can’t imagine the conditions under which sport takes place there.”

However, this does not only apply to the east of Ukraine: “The myth is spreading that the fighting is taking place on the front and the interior is completely calm. It’s not true, there are air raids just like in eastern Ukraine. Rockets hit there just like they hit eastern Ukraine. We have the story of Ukrainian basketball legend Mr. Kobzistý, he was a coach and was killed by a rocket in Lviv. He did not take part in the fighting, but a rocket found him and killed him a few kilometers from the Polish border. I’ve been in a few wars and this is the first conflict where you don’t feel safe in the whole territory of a big country, which was new to me.”

The goal of the film is not only to show the difficulties of Ukrainian athletes: “Our documentary should be a contribution to the discussion about whether Russian athletes should be at the Olympic Games – and it doesn’t matter under which flag – or not.”

He also mentioned the argument for participation: “It will affect athletes who get up and train from the age of five and go to the pinnacle, which is the Olympic Games. As the father of athletes, I understand this, I also got up with them.

Vítek deliberately does not show his own opinion so that everyone can think about it: “I will not say my opinion, I will leave it to people to look at it and form their own opinion. I would like the film to penetrate the sports bubble, where a large part of people say that politics does not belong in sports – don’t bring it into it.”

However, he knows the Ukrainian point of view: “They perceive it as a great injustice. The sports officials we spoke to who deal with sports law say – before the war, Russia could not compete under its flag at the previous Olympics due to state-run doping scandals. So what did they punish them with? After all, they could no longer start under their flag because the state organized the doping of representatives.”

He also suggests a solution in the podcast. According to him, Russians who want to participate in the Olympics would have to leave the country and work in the refugee team.

According to him, sanctions on Russian athletes should continue to apply: “Sports sanctions are perhaps the only sanctions that really hurt Russia, and it is being resolved in Russia. At least in this, we should persevere and be really strict.” Sport in Russia does not stand aside: “Specifically hockey, the KHL, which is totally connected to the state and the regime, is largely financed by state-owned enterprises Gazprom et al. and the state wants obedience after the KHL.” That’s why there were Z symbols on the stadiums.

However, there are more problems. Future champions will have no way to grow up when the sports fields are destroyed: “You are not born as a representative. Here, Jágr didn’t ride alone on the ice in Kladno and suddenly went to the NHL. He needed 20 teammates and hundreds more opponents to grow. Sports are significantly restricted there.”

However, they are more troubled: “Another big problem, which I think will last for generations, is the emigration of young and small athletes abroad. These are thousands of children who fled with their parents before the war and have stopped playing sports or are practicing it in other states.”