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A Ukrainian athlete dropped out of her race at the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympic Games on Tuesday after she found out her father had been taken captive and beaten by Russian soldiers.
Anastasiia Laletina, 19, chose not to compete in the middle-distance sitting para biathlon after she heard the news, a spokeswoman for her team told AFP News.
"Her father is a soldier in the Ukrainian army and [was taken] prisoner by Russian soldiers. They beat him," Nataliia Harach told AFP. "She was very upset and couldn't take part in the race."
Laletina is one of 20 Ukrainian athletes who traveled to China to compete in the Paralympic Games, which began on March 4. The Ukrainian Paralympic team is known to be one of the most competitive teams in the world, and athletes have said that their participation in the event could help bring recognition to their nation during the war.
"We're here to represent our country, to glorify our country, to tell the world that Ukraine exists," said Oksana Shyshkova, who won Ukraine's fourth gold medal in a cross-country ski event on Monday, according to the New York Times.
Valerii Sushkevych, the president of Ukraine's Paralympic committee, told the Times that while the athletes have been struggling to sleep and desperate to gain information about the conflict, most have remained defiant in their sport.
"Our soldiers have battles in Ukraine," Sushkevych said in an interview on Monday. "We, the Paralympic team, have our battles in Beijing. If we did not come here, it would be like losing position, like capitulation."
So far, the Ukrainian team ranks just below China for overall medal count in the Games, bringing in six gold, seven silver, and four bronze. According to the Paralympic website, Laletina is still registered to compete in the upcoming para cross-country skiing event, though it is unclear if she will participate.
Last week, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) joined several other global sports organizations in barring athletes from Russia and Belarus from competitions.
"Ensuring the safety and security of athletes is of paramount importance to us and the situation in the athlete villages is escalating and has now become untenable," IPC president Andrew Parsons said while announcing the decision.
"To the Para athletes from the impacted countries, we are very sorry that you are affected by the decisions your governments took last week in breaching the Olympic Truce. You are victims of your governments' actions."
Russia and Ukraine have been at war for nearly two weeks, after Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated a full-scale invasion of the country on February 24. So far, at least two million people have fled Ukraine and over 1,000 civilians have been killed, making it the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
Newsweek contacted Ukraine's Paralympic Committee for additional comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
