More Olympic medalists join the defense of Ukraine: basketball champion in Seoul '88 with the USSR, Alexander Volkov, the most recent

Every day there are new names of well-known Ukrainian sportsmen who have taken up arms against Russian military intervention.

The most recent is that of Alexander Volkov, who at the age of 57 could be the oldest among the Olympic medalists enlisted in the territorial defense of his native country.

His playing years included a gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics basketball tournament with the Soviet Union along with two silver medals at the FIBA World Cup in 1986 and 1990.

The former star also added one gold, one silver and one bronze in the editions of the EuroBasket from 1985 to 1989. At that time he enrolled in various clubs in the USSR, Italy and Greece.

A photo of Volkov in military clothing and inside a vehicle with a rifle has been shared on social media.

The former player served as chairman of the State Sports Committee in Ukraine from 1999 to 2000 and has since remained active in politics.

In 2007 he was elected president of the Ukrainian Basketball Federation. He was among the pioneers of European players in the NBA, after being selected by the Atlanta Hawks in 1986 club with which he played three seasons.

Seven months ago Stanisław Horuna won a bronze medal in the 75 kg karate tournament at the Tokyo Olympics. Today he patrols the streets of his hometown, Lviv, as a soldier.

Horuna says that if there had been no war, he was currently in a training camp or teaching children. But he is still confident that he will be able to compete in the European Championships in Turkey and in July at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.

“I have qualified for those Games so I have the opportunity to participate in this great competition,” Olympic medallist told Polish media Fakt.

Horuna is convinced that he will compete in Turkey and the United States.

“According to the forecasts of our Ministry of Defense, the fighting will last another month, maybe a month and a half. Later, maybe we can push the Russians to the borders. I hope that later life will return to normal in cities and you can go to a cafe or a movie,” he said.

“The Games were only seven months ago. If you have any sporting achievements, it becomes part of your personality. It influences how people see you and how you feel about yourself. But that doesn't mean anything now. In the situation we are in now, all people are equal. It's not your past that counts, but how you can help here and now.”

Two famous active boxers, Vasyl Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk, canceled their next professional commitments to enlist in defense units. Both have been photographed in military uniform and weapons in their hands.

Lomachenko was Olympic champion in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 and world champion in two categories and was in negotiation to fight Australian George Kambosos for the WBA, WBO and IBF lightweight belts (135 pounds).

Now he temporarily changed his gloves for a rifle in the Belgorod-Dnetrovsky region, near the borders with Romania and Moldova, on the Black Sea coast, where the Crimean peninsula is located, taken by Russia in 2014

A native of Crimea is Usyk, Olympic heavyweight champion in London 2012. It was precisely in the United Kingdom that he was negotiating the final details of the rematch against Briton Anthony Joshua when the Russian invasion took place and immediately returned to Ukraine to be with his family.

With his triumph over Joshua in September 2021, Usyk became one of only three boxers (alongside American Evander Holyfield and Englishman David Haye) to have unified the world cruiserweight titles and then become world heavyweight champion.

Two other former boxing champions, the famous Klitschko brothers, enlisted early in the defense of Kiev.

Vitali, mayor of Kiev since 2014, and Vladimir, became the only world heavyweight champion brothers simultaneously, and at that time, in different professional organizations.

Vladimir was Olympic champion in Atlanta 1996. Vitali that year was removed from the Ukrainian national team after testing positive for an anti-doping control.

Vitali posted a video on Twitter on Monday on a tour with his brother through destroyed streets in his city.

A month ago the biathlon world champion, Dmytro Pidruchnyi, was competing in the Winter Olympics in Beijing and today he serves the National Guard in Ukraine in his hometown, Ternopil.

This group of athletes has been joined by others in the defense of Ukraine such as Yaroslav Amosov, nicknamed Dynamo, a European champion in Mixed Martial Arts, tennis player Serhiy Stakhovsky, former cyclist Yaroslav Popovich, Sheriff club coach Yuriy Vernidub, and footballers Oleksandr Aliyev, Myth Khailo Kopolovets, Vitaliy Mandzyuk, former defender of Dynamo Kiev, and Oleg Luzhnyi, the first football player to win the Premier League, with Arsenal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on February 24 a “special military operation” in Ukraine on the grounds of defending Russia's national security. The Russian invasion has led to condemnation in the vast majority of countries and heavy sanctions against Moscow, including those applied by more than 30 international sports federations.