Ukrainian weightlifter Oleksandr Pielieshenko, who competed in the 2016 Olympics, was killed in the war against Russia

World News

From David Propper

A two-time European weightlifting champion who competed for Ukraine in the 2016 Olympics died fighting during his country’s war with Russia, the Ukrainian Olympic Committee announced Monday.

Oleksandr Pielieshenko, 30, “died in war with the enemy” on Sunday after joining Ukraine’s armed forces shortly before the conflict began more than two years ago, the committee said in a Telegram post.

“It is with great sadness that we announce that today the heart of the honored Master of Sports of Ukraine, two-time European weightlifting champion Oleksandr Pielieshenko, stopped beating,” the Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation said on Facebook.

Pielieshenko was five kilograms shy of winning a medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, where he finished fourth.

While he won the European Under-85kg Championship in 2016 and retained the title in 2017, the athlete was implicated in two doping violations. He was suspended from 2013 to 2015 and was caught again in 2018, leading to his ban.

Pielieshenko is among more than 400 Ukrainian athletes and officials killed in the war since Russia invaded the neighboring country in February 2022.

“The war demands the best of us… This is a very heavy loss for the entire weightlifting community of Ukraine,” national coach Viktor Slobodianiuk said in a Facebook post. “Heroes do not die.”

With post wires