Yuliia Zhytelna woke her dad up with the telephone name. Ten hours separate Sacramento, the place the redshirt freshman tennis participant at Cal State Northridge had simply completed a match, and her native Ukraine.
She hoped he might debunk studies she had seen on social media of Russian missiles hitting the airport close to her hometown of Kyiv, the capital. He wasn’t conscious, however when her father known as again a short while later, she heard heavy respiration.
“Yuliia, it’s war.”
Earlier within the day, Zhytelna had competed in a doubles match together with her companion, Ekaterina Repina, who’s Russian. Now they had been each attempting to make sense of one thing exterior their grasp.
Oklahoma tennis participant Sasha Pisareva was in the same state of panic. The town the place her mother was residing, Kharkiv, was amongst those who had been first bombed and Pisareva could not instantly attain her. Lastly, her mother known as her on her mobile phone — an costly name that was completely different from how they normally communicated.
“I’m OK,” she instructed her daughter. “They started bombing us. I’m gathering my things right now.”
Pisareva’s intuition was to ask questions, however there wasn’t time for that. Lower than 24 hours later, together with her thoughts nonetheless occupied with what was taking place in her dwelling nation, Pisareva took the courtroom in her singles match towards a participant from Central Florida and received.
Within the weeks because the Russian invasion started on Feb. 24, the resounding feeling amongst six Ukrainian NCAA athletes interviewed by ESPN has been one in every of helplessness. They’ve tried to compartmentalize the horrors of struggle whereas carrying on their each day lives in america.
Few round them can relate, so this small neighborhood — as of 2019-20, the latest educational yr for which the NCAA has information, there have been 107 NCAA Division I and II student-athletes who listed their hometown in Ukraine, 47 of which had been girls’s tennis gamers — has seemed for tactics to lean on one another.
However they continue to be scared for his or her households and associates, naturally, and uncertain of what is going to be left for them to return again dwelling.
“Whenever I call [my parents], there’s a lot of loud noises you can hear from the bombs and missiles — and just like screams,” stated Washington State rower Kate Maistrenko, who’s from Kyiv. “It’s just crazy. It feels like it’s a movie, but it’s not.”
MAISTRENKO IS THE daughter of Olympic rowers. Her father, Anatolil, competed for the Soviet Union on the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and her mom, Valentyna, was a member of the Unified Crew in Barcelona in 1992. They run a rowing coaching camp in Kyiv, the place Maistrenko grew up, however shortly after the bombing began, her household fled to their nation home about 10 kilometers miles exterior Kyiv.
It was a fortuitous determination. Inside days, Maistrenko obtained mobile phone footage from a former classmate and neighbor: the residence constructing she had grown up in had been hit by a Russian missile and destroyed.
“I don’t know why they would send a bomb to the apartment complex,” Maistrenko stated. “It’s just very family-oriented. There is nothing that could be of danger like a military base. It’s just peaceful civilians in their apartments.”
Her dad and mom initially had hoped to show their massive nation home right into a resort, however the mission by no means launched. For a pair weeks after the invasion started, it was reworked into considerably of a protected haven for these in search of shelter — as a lot as that was potential given the circumstances. Maistrenko estimated greater than 100 individuals lived within the basement — youngsters who misplaced their dad and mom, displaced households, others they know with nowhere else to go.
However because the struggle raged on, her household decided the home was not protected, because it was in an space focused by missiles. On March 16, they fled for Ternopil, roughly 500 kilometers away in Western Ukraine. The drive was troublesome. Roads had been bombed. They slept of their automotive. For 3 days, they did not have cell service and Maistrenko was unable to succeed in them. She relied on updates from her two brothers, each of whom are combating for Ukraine.
Over 5,000 miles away in Pullman, Washington, Maistrenko stated she has tried to keep up some sense of normalcy amid 5:30 a.m. exercises, lessons and afternoon practices. She remained a consultant for WSU on the Pac-12’s Pupil-Athlete Advisory Committee. Including fear on prime of these tasks, sleep stays laborious to come back by.
Although Maistrenko stated she has felt supported on campus, she’s not with anybody in one who can actually relate to what she’s coping with, as there aren’t any different born-and-raised Ukrainians round. Her interactions have various.
“So many people reached out to me and they’re like, ‘How can we help you? Are you OK?'” Maistrenko stated. “I’m like, ‘No, I’m not. I have friends who’ve died. I don’t know if they are even buried or where they are.'”
Simply weeks earlier than the invasion started, Maistrenko helped a brand new Russian scholar get located on campus. Then, when the bombing started, Maistrenko was shocked by a textual content message that scholar despatched her: “Don’t worry, girl. Putin will save you.”
Maistrenko despatched an extended response, however the message was easy: “If you open your eyes, you can see what’s happening.”
She by no means heard again.
The potential for an interplay just like the one Maistrenko skilled is why Zhytelna was uneasy about having a Russian teammate previous to arriving on campus in Northridge.
“I was concerned about what she’s thinking when I came here because [Russian] propaganda [about Ukrainians], and stuff like this,” Zhytelna stated. “I was really concerned about this.”
As a substitute, Zhytelna and Repina, a fifth-year senior, grew to become quick associates — and doubles companions. As missiles continued to be fired on Zhytelna’s hometown, she shared tales from family and friends about what was taking place in Ukraine.
“When you start being friends, you don’t think about the nationalities,” Zhytelna stated of their relationship.
She’s discovered help elsewhere, too. Zhytelna has 4 siblings and her household remained in Kyiv for 2 weeks earlier than her dad and mom sought refuge. That is when Zhytelna’s Polish CSUN teammate, Magdalena Hedrzak, stepped in. She instructed her dad and mom of Zhytelna’s household’s plight, and so they set them up with an residence in Poland, absolutely stocked with meals. Her father was capable of finding a job to switch the enterprise he left behind in Ukraine.
“I’m so grateful too, because now my family is in a safe place,” Zhytelna stated. “But it’s still upsetting that they left everything behind. Everything is at our house. And no one knows when you will come back.”
RECEIVING AN AMERICAN college training is a main draw for almost all worldwide school athletes, however adapting to a brand new nation and tradition can really feel isolating.
When Anastasiia Ustiuzhanina enrolled at Tulsa for the spring semester, it meant she could be separated for an prolonged interval from her twin sister, Kateryna, for the primary time. They’re each international-caliber rowers, the daughters of an Olympic rowing bronze medalist. Kateryna opted to stay in Ukraine. Anastasiia assumed she would get to return dwelling from Oklahoma in the summertime to row for the nationwide workforce and see her household. Then the invasion started.
Kateryna had left with the Ukrainian nationwide rowing workforce for coaching in Turkey shortly earlier than the bombings. Their mom, Tetiana Ustiuzhanina, who competed and positioned for the Unified Crew within the 1992 Olympics, has remained in Ukraine, reluctant to depart her dwelling nation.
Although Anastasiia has been capable of speak with each of them each day, the primary night time was the toughest. Her mom might hear explosions from her dwelling and left for a bomb shelter with their cat. She has since fled to a small city 100 kilometers from Kyiv. Kateryna, in the meantime, has no plans to depart Turkey.
“I also don’t know when all my family can see each other together in one place, and it makes me cry sometimes,” Anastasiia stated.
Many Ukrainian NCAA athletes have leaned on one another. Roughly 30 are a part of an lively WhatsApp group chat, sharing data and staying linked.
Within the WhatsApp group, Miami tennis participant Diana Khodan, who’s from Western Ukraine which has to this point been much less impacted, handed alongside details about her area meant to assist these fleeing. A number of Ukrainian student-athletes expressed a way of obligation to attempt to provide help nevertheless they will.
Maistrenko had been saving cash to purchase a automotive, however donated these funds to the struggle effort. Zhytelna organized a vigil on the CSUN campus. Ustiuzhanina attended a rally in Tulsa. Creating extra consciousness in america, they are saying, is vital.
For some athletes, sports activities have served as a welcome respite from the chaos. The Oklahoma girls’s tennis workforce is amid maybe the perfect season in class historical past, ranked No. 3 within the nation. On March 6, the college hosted a match in help of Ukraine. Pisareva and her teammates wore patches of the Ukrainian flag.
“I think [tennis] is a very good distraction,” Pisareva stated. “When all of this started, I was just focusing on playing for my country. Tennis is my passion and it helps me to not think about what’s going on.”
Pisareva, the daughter of two internationally well-known Ukrainian ballet dancers, was born in america whereas her father, Vadym Pisayev, was performing in “The Nutcracker” in Philadelphia. However she was raised in Donestk, a significant metropolis in Jap Ukraine the place Russian-backed separatist forces have lengthy fought the Ukrainian authorities. When the Donbas Conflict broke out in 2014, her household was pressured aside.
Pisareva moved in with a household in Kyiv, whereas her sister and mom, Inna Dorofeeva, relocated to Kharkiv, the place her sister pursued ballet. Her father remained in Donetsk.
In her rush to flee Kharkiv when the invasion started, Pisareva’s mom took a practice to Poland. From there she moved to Belarus and, finally, Moscow, the place Pisareva’s sister is learning on the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet Academy.
“My mom is simply there because she wanted to be with my sister,” Pisareva stated.
Pisareva has some concern that it might turn into troublesome to speak together with her mom and sister, given Russia’s attempt to isolate itself digitally, however has to this point been capable of keep in contact utilizing WhatsApp and one other messaging platform, Viber.
The cultural ties between the nations are robust. It’s normal for siblings or members of the family to reside on either side of the border.
USC rower Anastasia Slivina was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, to Ukrainian dad and mom. She spent the primary 11 years of her life in Russia earlier than her household relocated to Kyiv to be nearer to household.
“I definitely feel like I am Ukrainian, not Russian,” Slivina stated. “Inside, just like by the way my spirit is.”
However she additionally has a variety of Russian associates and that dynamic has made an already difficult scenario much more advanced.
“We’re different culturally from Russians, but we’re still just so, so similar,” Slivina stated. “It’s very hard to acknowledge that these two countries are in war right now. And most of the Russians that I talked to, they understand that it’s wrong what their government is doing, but some don’t understand and it’s really painful for me to acknowledge that.”
For almost per week after the invasion started, Slivina stopped attending apply and sophistication. She stated she spent a lot of that point in tears. Primary human interplay was arduous. A USC sports activities psychologist helped her by way of it.
“I’ve been very sensitive to things that I wouldn’t be sensitive to otherwise,” she stated. “Recently, one of my coaches said some completely normal things to me and I cried because my mental state is off.”
AFTER THE INITIAL shock subsided, concern concerning the future set in — for his or her nation, for his or her households, for the student-athletes themselves.
“Now I don’t know what will be there tomorrow in my country and in my city where I grew up,” Ustiuzhanina stated.
Maistrenko, in the meantime, needed to comply with the same path as her Olympian dad and mom. After graduating from WSU this spring, she deliberate to return dwelling and proceed rowing with an eye fixed on the 2024 Olympics.
Now she’s undecided when she’s going to have the ability to return to Ukraine or what it would seem like. Her dad and mom’ rowing camp has been destroyed. She’s in america on an F1 visa and plans to use for an Non-obligatory Sensible Coaching visa, which might permit her to increase her keep within the nation for one more three years. She’s fascinated by transferring to Seattle to work and proceed coaching.
“I’m going to start my life from scratch,” she stated.
Zhytelna, who’s learning journalism and concrete planning, was in search of summer season internships at dwelling, and he or she had plans to journey together with her sister. These preparations are off. For a number of weeks, she was uncertain the place she would reside this summer season till a lady in Southern California supplied her a room after a journalism professor shared her scenario.
“Her parents had to flee from the Holocaust in Poland,” Zhytelna stated of her benefactor. “They became refugees.”
Zhytelna prompt they is perhaps kindred spirits in that means.
As these student-athletes have tried to seek out some form of sustainable routine, the factor of the unknown makes it troublesome. Their households’ circumstances can change straight away. Most worldwide college students’ visa standing limits how they will generate earnings.
However with no finish to the struggle in sight, all of them acknowledge the truth of the scenario: They haven’t any alternative however to hold on.
