Victoria Onopriyenko: "While my father defends Ukraine on the front lines, I fight for our country in the sports arenas."
As is well known, it was Viktoriya Onopriyenko who secured the only Olympic license for Ukrainian "artistic gymnasts" this year. Her challenging journey, paved with both roses and various thorns, impressed the International Olympic Committee so much that a documentary was made about her as an example of resilience on the road to the 2024 Olympics. Her face has become one of the symbols of the Ukrainian struggle in global sports: she dedicates her awards to Ukrainian soldiers and tirelessly reminds the world of her people's pain.
However, paradoxically, despite all her athletic achievements and global recognition, Viktoriya... did not make it to the Olympics.
Why? The athlete provided an answer to this question in her rather candid interview, where she also discussed her early steps in gymnastics, the joy of victory and the bitterness of defeat, as well as the war and her father’s involvement in it.
1Viktoriya Onopriyenko
About the first steps in gymnastics
– Viktoriya, you grew up in a sports family: your father was a fencer, and your mother was an athlete. How did you end up choosing rhythmic gymnastics?
– Yes, indeed, I had no chance of escaping sports (smiles – ed.). When I turned three, my parents took me to a figure skating class. However, it didn’t work out because I started getting sick due to the constant cold at the rink.
My destiny as an athlete was determined at the capital's Palace of Sports, where one day my mother Liliya Viktorivna and father Maksym Anatoliyovych took me to watch the "artistic" competition at the Deriugina Cup. I was enchanted and literally couldn't take my eyes off the gymnasts’ performances. And when Anna Bessonova stepped onto the mat and I saw her world-famous routine with a purple ribbon, I fell in love with this sport at first sight and forever.
– How do your parents, both athletes, support you?
– All my sports victories also belong to them. My family is my main support. For example, my father taught me discipline from a young age. While my peers enjoyed their vacations, we ran cross-country and did physical exercises together. However, he managed to organize everything so interestingly that these training sessions became a joy for me. Thanks to my father, I understood from childhood what professional sports are, and I began to closely follow national and international competitions. It was during this time that I set a goal to join the Ukrainian rhythmic gymnastics team and represent our country on the international stage.
2Viktoriya Onopriyenko with her parents
I remember how, on the eve of my first-ever competition, my parents sewed sequins onto my costume together. Rhinestones were not yet in trend back then (laughs – ed.). I don’t know how my father managed it, but he sewed the sequins even better than my mother.
My mother has always been by my side since childhood. She is like a guardian angel, helping me subtly, unobtrusively, appropriately, and always effectively. In the toughest moments, caused by worries for my father, who is currently fighting on the front lines, when despair and anxiety mentally exhaust and deplete us, she always finds the right words to restore our strength, motivation, and faith.
– I noticed that in almost all the stories and films about you, your mother is holding a small, cute dog that seems to be quite emotionally supportive during your competitions. Is this your favorite family member?
– Yes, this is my fluffy, four-legged support. Like most children, I dreamed of having a dog since childhood, but it happened that this dream only came true now. When the full-scale invasion began, my mother, my godmother, and I were in Uzhhorod. My mother saw how depressed I was, preparing for my first competition after the start of the great war — the World Cup in Bulgaria. And then my mother made me a gift that I had dreamed of my whole life. She gave me a charming puppy. This surprise was so unexpected and touching that I simply cried with happiness at that moment.
The puppy’s passport name is Lia, but we call her Lyusia. And you know, she also has a fighting, sporty character: if Lyusia really wants something, she definitely gets it. Just like me!
3Viktoriya Onopriyenko
About the first weeks of the war and her father’s departure to the front
– Viktoriya, please recall the first weeks following the onset of the full-scale war. How did you cope during that time, and where were you?
– I don’t think I will ever forget the first day of the war. At four in the morning, my godmother called and said that the full-scale invasion had begun. At that moment, I felt fear and complete confusion — how could this be possible? How can Kyiv be bombed in the 21st century? We turned on the television, and the first images we saw were from Kharkiv, which was also under fire. In a panic, we began to pack a "safety bag" — the most essential things. Fortunately, we had some food and water supplies, but they didn’t last long.
The explosions around Kyiv were heard almost every hour, and then we realized with our neighbors that we needed to find shelter. We went down to the basement of our building. It was in terrible condition: old, cold, cluttered...
But it saved us. We spent almost a week in that basement, hardly ever coming out. When we finally dared to breathe fresh air, we faced another horror — a missile flew directly overhead with a deafening sound. I remember someone present saying, "That’s for Hostomel." It was so terrifying that my legs felt weak...
From the first days, my father said he would join the territorial defense, but my mother and I begged him to stay with us a little longer because we were very afraid of being left alone in such a situation. Soon we were informed that the rhythmic gymnastics team would be evacuated to Uzhhorod. On the day of our departure, our neighbors drove us, and we walked the rest of the way from our Obolon neighborhood to the gathering point for gymnasts in the center of Kyiv.
Saying goodbye to my father was extremely difficult. We didn’t know what would happen next, what awaited us. The journey to Uzhhorod lasted three days due to the curfew and endless traffic jams. I cried almost the entire time. Even now, when I recall those days, I feel a piercing pain.
4Viktoriya Onopriyenko with her parents
– Viktoriya, how did you react to your father’s decision?
– Of course, thoughts were swirling in my head: how, why, why him... But I understood that my father couldn’t do otherwise. It was his choice, his character, his beliefs. And he simply couldn’t act differently. I grew up in a patriotic family and knew from childhood what it means to love your country. My father was convinced that it was his duty to protect us: me, my mother, my grandmother...
At first, he was in the territorial defense, and then he went to the front. When we returned from Uzhhorod to Kyiv in May 2022, my father did the impossible — he came to see us for two days. He decided to surprise us and didn’t warn us he was coming. So the meeting was extremely emotional.
It was pure happiness. After so many weeks of separation, constant worries and anxieties, just to see him, to hug him — it was such joy... The next time we saw him was only after nine long months. My father couldn’t always be in touch as often as we all would have liked. So every message, every conversation felt like a breath of air. A weight lifted from my soul each time I learned he was alive, uninjured, and that everything was alright with him.
5Viktoriya Onopriyenko with her parents
About returning to training and competitions and losses in the war
– How did your return