World Championship medalist and two-time Ukrainian Olympian Igor Chervynskiy has been “seriously wounded” in his country’s ongoing war with Russia, the Ukrainian Swimming Federation and fellow Olympian Sergiy Fesenko report to SwimSwam.
The 43-year-old was serving a combat mission on the front lines of the ongoing war when he was injured. While the exact nature of his injury has not been described, a photo shows him in a hospital bed with bandages on both legs and a metal medical device on his left leg. Fesenko says that he was hit by munitions dropped from a Russian drone.
Courtesy: Ukrainian Swimming Federation
Chervynskiy was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, the country’s 6th largest-city with a pre-war population of 1.4 million. He was born there in 1981 when it was part of the USSR. That city near the Russian border has been a focal point of fighting in the war; as of April 2024, the Ukrainian government reported that almost a quarter of the city had been damaged or destroyed.
Chervynskiy was the 2003 World Championship silver medalist in the 1500 free and bronze medalist in the 800 free in Barcelona, part of Ukraine’s great distance swimming tradition. He was also the 1999 (SCM) and 2000 (LCM) European Champion in the 1500 free, two of five European medals in that event; a three-time World University Games Champion, the 2000 World Short Course Championship runner-up; and a three-time European Junior Champion in 1998 and 1999.
Prior to the start of the war, he was working as a swim coach at the youth sports school Spartak. Last year, at 42, and after two years of serving in the war, he won the Ukrainian Championship in the 5,000-meter swim in a 50 meter pool.
Fesenko called Chervynskiy “the hero of Ukraine” and is spearheading a fundraising effort to get him to the United States for rehabilitation (details here). Fesenko has been active in several war relief efforts, including convincing the Indian government to send war supplies to Ukraine, and finding avenues for young Ukrainian swimmers to train in other countries using relationships formed during his own elite swimming career.
Fesenko was on the 2004 Olympic Team with Chervynskiy and his father, Sergey Fesenko senior, was a 1980 Olympic gold medalist in the 200 fly for the USSR. Fesenko currently lives in the United States.
Fesenko says that he is one of three known national swimmers who are currently fighting for Ukraine in the war.
With war engulfing the nation, including estimates of around 700,000 Ukrainians currently actively fighting at the front, several athletes have been involved in the war. Earlier this month, former Ukrainian National Team hockey player Oleksandr Matviychuk was seriously injured after being shot; Eugine Obendinskiy, ex-captain of the Ukrainian National Water Polo Team, was killed in a bombing; and a Ukrainian National Swimming Team coach spent two hours trapped under rubble when a building she was sheltering under was hit by a missile.
Estimates of total fatalities from the war vary widely by source, but recent estimates by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies reports that Russia has suffered approximately 250,000 deaths and 950,000 casualties in the war since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, while Ukraine has sustained an estimated 60,00-100,000 killed and up to 400,000 total casualties, including injured.
Photographs
Fesenko provided these photographs via Chervynskiy; SwimSwam could not verify the authenticity of the pictures.
Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko
Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko
Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko
Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko
Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko
Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko
Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko
Wishing you a speedy recovery, Igor.
My parents are Polish, and they believe only Eastern Europeans can understand the complexity of this conflict. Ukraine should not be allowed to compete as much as Russia. Arguably, they’ve committed a lot more war crimes, you’re just not shown them in Western media. Knowing only 1% of what’s happening, people believe that their opinion matters and they can own an opinion. If you are interested in the Russia-Ukraine war, come to Poland and talk to people. Otherwise, don’t spread your ideas coz they’re based on nothing.
well, where to begin… what you wrote is despicable.
Russia attacked Ukraine. In Ukraine. the end.
and even they don’t. 30% of Hungarians believe Ukraine is attacking Russia
Russia is taking land that does not belong to them. Ukraine is taking back what belongs to them and a lot of us do know what’s going on because we have family and friends living there. Ukraine has not done anything wrong they are the ones who are having their country stripped away from them.
I hate to break it to you, but the swimswam demographic tends to be a bit more clever than falling for someone claiming to be a pole expressising the least Polish opinion imaginable
Russians should not be allowed to compete this is truly awful and disgusting to see posts and articles about them when that country is off killing other people.
Amen.
Slava Ukraini!
Thanks for the article! He’s a legend and a hero. It makes me sick when I hear the discussions about allowing russia to compete again on the international level. The amount of horror they have caused us in these 3+ years is absolutely enormous. And they don’t seem to stop. One more 50 meter pool in Kyiv was hit during the drone/missile attack just this Monday (along with some residential buildings where at least 10 people died and many more heavily injured). Check Misha Romanchuk’s Instagram for the latest post. It’s so f-kin’ unfair! 💔
Swim swam is the same company to post all about Russians and their achievements and then post this to try to act like their neutral🤣
True. These barbarians should be boycotted in all spheres of life at least till there’s no russian soldiers on our land and their daily attacks completely stop.
No international competition of any kind for Russian athletes until they are out of Ukraine completely.
brace Ukranians are so strong
so very brave and thoughts go out to all Ukrainians