This story is about as wild as it gets.
Seven-time breaststroking World Champion Oleg Lisogor 0f Ukraine has been caught up in a kidnapping case in the African country of Liberia this week, with media reports swirling and conflicting heavily about what happened.
Initial reports were that Lisogor and Mykola Cherneshov were arrested “on charges of kidnapping and felonious restraint” according to many publications like AllAfrica.com. They were accused of holding Ivan Slipchenk against his will in Nokia Building in Monrovia for 9 days. The alleged victim is said to have been found when he cut himself and used his blood to write on a window asking for help, which was seen by passers-by.
Lisogor has a business interest in many casinos in Monrovia.
According to another site, forUm, though, Lisogor has denied that he is under arrest or that any criminal proceedings are instituted against him, according to a government official who says that Lisogor denied any arrest to the Ukrainian consulate in Senegal, and also denied any help from Ukrainian diplomats.
While it is unlikely that the media totally fabricated the cited police reports, the exact details of the incident remain murky.
Lisogor won World Championships in the 50 breaststroke in 2001 and 2007 in long course, in 2002, 2006, and 2008 in short course, and also won the 2002 and 2006 World Short Course Championships. He was also a 19-time European Champion, and held the 50 breaststroke World Records in both short course and long course stunningly from 2002 until 2009.
I started out loving the Russians and Ukrainians, but after my stint as an international swimmer, all I can say is that they in general have huge issues with their character and no standard of behavior!
God I hope the allegations are false. But having kept in touch with friends from when I lived and worked in Liberia, just prior to the war there, the last thing that country needs to help it rebuild is more casinos.
They could use a lot more pools, though, maybe he could help with that if he is cleared of these charges. The heat was extreme and we got parasites any time we tried to swim in the lakes and rivers when we first got there. I do remember visiting a Swedish mining company town up in the mountains that had a 100 meter pool that we got to swim in one time. It was a day in heaven… Read more »
Amazing. Absolutely amazing! Wow. How long were you there???
Sorry Lane Four, just saw this page again as I happened to find this in Google when I was looking for something else about Liberia. I was there for 6 months in the late 80s just before the war started. My roommate and I finished our med school credits a semester early and had nothing else to do so accepted an offer to work at Phebe Hospital there up in the bush while we were waiting for graduation, they were desperate so were happy to license us there as full-fledged docs.
I’m having trouble finding pics of the pool and could only find one page even referencing it, but I was wrong in that it was in Bong Town… Read more »
Holy ****!