Three weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, Ukrainian wrestler Zhan Beleniuk suffered one of the worst injuries of his long athletic career.
It was supposed to be a light practice session to get him ready for the Games. Beleniuk landed poorly on his elbow where the mat was covered in sweat and it slipped. Suddenly, five years of preparation were in jeopardy.
Doctors were against him competing in the first place but his coach reassured him that “everything was fine.” In fact, Beleniuk believes that the injury made him mentally stronger at the competition.
Just weeks later, Beleniuk achieved his lifelong ambition of becoming an Olympic champion.
“It’s every athlete’s dream,” Beleniuk, 30, told the Kyiv Post.
Beleniuk, who is also a lawmaker, juggles athletics and politics. He has previously talked about retiring from sports after the Tokyo Olympics but no announcement has been made yet. “After a performance like that, you feel a new surge of energy again, making you feel like you can continue competing,” he said, and “it’s possible” that he will compete again.
But for now, Beleniuk wants to dedicate himself to politics. Ever since becoming Ukraine’s first black lawmaker in 2019, he’s served as the first deputy head of the parliamentary Committee on Youth and Sports, representing the 243-member Servant of the People faction.
Beleniuk’s vision of Ukraine’s future involves building the necessary infrastructure to support athletes and the improvement of public health by promoting sports.
“We are not providing enough for people interested in sports and this is a big problem that needs to be solved,” he said. “We need to make sure that sports become popular so people understand how important and necessary it is in their lives.”
Access to sports
Growing up in the lower-middle-class Vynohradar district in Kyiv, Beleniuk never took things for granted. His family was poor. He was raised by his mother who worked as a seamstress and his grandmother, a cleaner at a silk mill. He never met his father, who died when Beleniuk was only 13 soon after fighting in the Rwandan civil war.
Beleniuk’s athletic career began with a lucky chance. He went to his first wrestling practice at the age of nine since it was offered at his school. He immediately liked it.
Now that he is older, he knows that not every kid is blessed with the same opportunity in Ukraine. Local schools provide only several classes of physical training per week. They are designed to suit children with different levels of athletic capabilities and are often not enough to spark children’s interest in sports. And if a child happens to be from a poor neighborhood where there is no sports infrastructure available, then the chances of them discovering their athletic potential are even smaller.
Even if there is a stadium or a playground around, in Ukraine, many of them are falling apart. As most of the sports infrastructure was built during the Soviet Union, it now either needs to be replaced or rebuilt. The old equipment discourages kids from taking up sports, Beleniuk said, including those who might have potential to become professional athletes. If Ukraine wants to grow star athletes, it should provide access to modern sports infrastructure to all children, he said.
“We have many talented kids,” he said. “If we want these talents to grow, we should make sure that all the necessary conditions are there.”
A reconstruction plan like that would cost Ukraine billions of dollars. It has unfortunately never been a priority, according to the politician and athlete. For many years, sports financing has been based on the principle of giving “whatever that remains in the budget.”
But the officials are now beginning to understand the importance of sports, Beleniuk said. In part thanks to his committee’s advocacy, this year, the Ministry of Youth and Sports’ budget was a record-breaking Hr 7.76 billion ($291 million). Though it’s a good start, Beleniuk said Ukraine needs to keep prioritizing sports funding.
Ukraine’s first black lawmaker Zhan Beleniuk takes part in a parliament session in Kyiv at Verkhovna Rada on Feb. 3, 2021. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Nation’s health
Investing in sports infrastructure not only helps the country produce top-notch athletes but also improves the overall health of the population, Beleniuk said.
“People who dedicate enough time to sports are less likely to need medical help later on in their lives,” Beleniuk said. “If the country spends more money in sports, then it will ultimately mean that health care expenditure will decrease.”
Beleniuk believes that Ukraine needs to follow the good examples of developed countries. They have higher life expectancies because people are generally more active. Studies have found that regular physical activity and a high fitness level reduces the likelihood of premature death.
Switzerland, for instance, has the highest life expectancy in Europe — 86 for women and 82.4 for men. Swiss people often live an active lifestyle, as well over 70% of the population meets the physical activity recommendation, according to the World Health Organization. Physical activity can save up to five million lives a year globally, the WHO writes.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s life expectancy is 77.3 for women and 68.6 for men. According to Health Minister Viktor Lyashko, 60% of Ukrainians do not engage in any physical activity in their spare time.
Beleniuk thinks that opportunities to practice sports should be accessible to the public whether in a stadium or a public park. “The problem is that even if someone wants to exercise, there often isn’t a place to do it. You can always go for a run and I like doing it, and maybe do some pushups on the ground. But it’s not the same for everyone,” he said.
Recently, initiatives like implementing a QR code system in parks so that the visitors can scan it and watch an exercise video tutorial have become more common. Beleniuk said this is a good example but there needs to be more.
Another way to get more people interested in sports is making tickets for athletic events cheaper, the lawmaker believes. To achieve that, Beleniuk co-initiated a bill that decreases tax rates for sports events and will allow organizers to lower the ticket prices.
He also said that competitions should be broadcast on television more often so that athletes are regarded as role models and inspire the nation to start exercising. Beleniuk says now is the perfect timing to start because the Tokyo Olympics finished a little over a month ago and sports are still on people’s minds.
“We need to use this momentum,” he said.
Ukraine’s Zhan Beleniuk (blue) wrestles Croatia’s Ivan Huklek in their men’s greco-roman 87kg wrestling semi-final match during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Makuhari Messe in Japan on Aug. 3, 2021. (AFP)
Giving back
Despite the poor state support of professional athletes, Beleniuk has always been a patriot. Even when he was offered to compete for other countries where he would be paid more, he refused.
“It’s always more attractive to help develop your own country than work elsewhere and be a ‘guest’ to another nation,” he said.
Having experienced racism since the early days of childhood, Beleniuk tries his best to show that a person can look different and still be Ukrainian. He remembers how normal it was to call a black person a “negro” and people didn’t understand how offensive it was. “People also stared at me a lot.”
Though he just recently encountered racism in central Kyiv when a group of men insulted him on the street for the color of his skin on Aug. 13, he said the situation is getting better in Ukraine.
“There will always be people who have complexes and think it’s okay to get rid of them by hurting other people, but this is not just in Ukraine,” he said. Yet, “there is still room for improvement.”
Despite all the difficulties he went through in Ukraine, it’s here that Beleniuk trained to grow into an Olympic champion. He now works to give back to his home, but humbly says “everyone wants to help improve their own country.”
