LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — The final race of the headfirst-sliding sport known as skeleton awaits Ukrainian athletes Vladyslav Heraskevych and Yaroslav Lavreniuk. After that, they’re going home.
In Lake Placid, a pair of athletes are sliding for Ukraine. They hope better days are ahead
They don’t know what awaits when they get there.
Heraskevych and Lavreniuk are the only athletes from Ukraine competing at the world bobsled and skeleton championships that start Thursday and run through next weekend in Lake Placid, New York. The house they’re sharing for a few more days is easy enough to find; it’s the one with a giant Ukrainian flag hanging off the porch.
And as a war rages on in their homeland — with tensions right now between Ukraine and the U.S. as high as they’ve been since the Russian invasion three years ago — Heraskevych and Lavreniuk are hoping that just being able to compete and wear their nation’s flag on the world stage brings some moment of joy to the people at home who are able to see it.
