An Olympian from Transcarpathia went to the Czech Republic to work
Ukrainian alpine skier and 2026 Olympic Games participant Dmytro Shepyuk said he ended up working on a construction site in Brno, the Czech Republic, to take a break from sports and earn some money.
The skier noted that professional sports do not provide him with a stable income. During the Olympic season, he had to spend 20,000–40,000 euros on training and competition fees, and individual training camps can cost as much as 20,000 euros each. The Ukrainian Ski Federation covers about 60–70% of the costs, and the athlete and his father jointly cover the remainder.
Despite offers to compete for the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia, Shep’yuk turned them down for patriotic reasons. At the Olympics, he placed 32nd in the slalom, achieving Ukraine’s best-ever result in this discipline, and raised 240,000 hryvnias to buy drones for his friend serving on the front lines.
Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
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