The World Athletics Championships took place in Budapest, where Russian athletes were not allowed due to sanctions. In the high jump sector, the victory was won by 21-year-old Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchikh, for whom the gold at the summer world championship was the first in her career. At the award ceremony, the athlete shouted a nationalist slogan. Will she be punished for this? What other scandals are known about Maguchi?

What helped Maguchy win the World Cup
For the last few years, in the women's high jump sector, medals in major international competitions have been played out between three athletes. The winner of this fight was the Russian Maria Lasitskene more often than others - the 30-year-old athlete won everything possible: from the World Championship (2015, 2017, 2019) and the European Championship (2018) to the Olympics (2020) and the overall Diamond League ( 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021).

Lasitskene’s real competitor appeared in 2019, when Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchikh left the juniors and began performing at the adult level. The 2019 World Championships in Doha (Qatar) was remembered for the confrontation between the then two-time world champion Lasitskene and the rising 18-year-old star of Ukrainian athletics Maguchikh. Both cleared the bar at a height of 2.04 m, but thanks to the number of attempts, the Russian woman won.

From time to time, Elinor Patterson from Australia intervened in the fight between the Russian and Ukrainian. She beat a Ukrainian at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, America, where the Russian team was not allowed in due to sanctions.

There were no big victories for Maguchy before Lasitskene was suspended, except for winning the European Indoor Championships in 2021. Now, at the World Championships in Budapest, the Ukrainian has won the long-awaited gold - the only one to overcome a height of 2.01 m. Patterson and her compatriot Nikola Olislagers stopped at a height of 1.99. Maguchikh tried to jump a personal best of 2.07 m, but it didn’t work out.

Yaroslav Maguchikh
Photo: Marcus Brandt/Global Look Press
Yaroslav Maguchikh
Will Maguchikh be punished for his nationalist slogan?
The 21-year-old Ukrainian athlete took the first major victory in her career rather reservedly. Until she ran up to personal trainer Tatyana Stepanova and she shouted out the well-known nationalist slogan of the Ukrainians. Maguchikh supported the mentor and repeated the slogan at the awards ceremony. The episode was broadcast on television, but was not interrupted by the organizers of the World Championships in Budapest, nor by the leaders of the International Association of Athletics Federations (World Athletics).

Sanctions from World Athletics did not follow, since political slogans are not prohibited at association competitions. But if Maguchikh had done so at the Tokyo Olympics, the International Olympic Committee would probably have punished her.

Yaroslav Maguchikh
Photo: Marcus Brandt/Global Look Press
Yaroslav Maguchikh
Before the Tokyo Olympics, the IOC published guidelines outlining what types of athlete protests would be prohibited at the Games. Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter prohibits athletes from expressing political views during competition.

The new rules come after the US Olympic Committee reprimanded two American athletes for protesting on the medal podium at the Pan American Games in Lima. Fencer Race Imboden knelt and hammer thrower Gwen Berry raised her fist in protest. Both were given a probationary period of 12 months, a period that included the Tokyo Olympics.

In March of this year, the IOC issued recommendations on the admission of Russian athletes to international competitions. In addition to their neutral status and lack of affiliation with the Russian Armed Forces, our athletes were prohibited from demonstrating support for the North Military District in Ukraine in any way - neither at competitions nor on social networks.

What scandals is Maguchy known for?
At the Tokyo Olympics, where Lasitskene won, and Maguchih became third, there was a scandal. A Russian woman and a Ukrainian woman took a common photo with the flags of their countries - while Maria performed under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee due to sanctions. Silver medalist of the Games Australian Nicola McDermot did not take pictures.

After that, Maguchy was criticized at home, and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine even called her in for a conversation.

Lasitskene said that Maguchih disowned her after that incident:

“When Yaroslava Maguchikh and I hugged at the Tokyo Olympics, certain structures in Ukraine later had a conversation with her, and she wrote on her social network “the enemy does not sleep” and so on, and renounced this act and me. Then this situation was discussed for a whole month, and no one stood up - neither other Ukrainian girls, nor Sergei Bubka , no one said that this is an athlete and there is no need to insult her. Everyone was silent, as if what was happening was the norm. ”

Maguchikh later spoke about a message from Lasitskene regarding the special operation. The previously friendly athletes did not have a conversation.

“Already after the World Championships in Eugene, she wrote to me, but, you know, this is after so many of my interviews. She wrote that, of course, she was very worried about us and about this situation. But, you know, it didn’t get any easier. Five months of war have already passed. What kind of conversation can there be? - said Maguchikh.

The Ukrainian woman also said that she no longer had an idol, so she hinted at disappointment in Lasitsken. She was outraged that the Russian woman did not express support for her and did not contact her after the start of the SVO.

Yaroslav Maguchikh
Photo: IMAGO/BEAUTIFUL SPORTS/Olaf Rell/Global Look Press
Yaroslav Maguchikh
The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine has threatened a boycott after reports that the IOC may allow the Russians to the Olympics in Paris. Maguchikh said that “this will be a defeat for Ukraine.”

“In fact, I think boycotting the Olympics is a very weak position. We must do everything to prevent this from happening. But not to participate in the Olympic Games. This is the biggest competition that everyone who hasn't watched is watching. If there are no Ukrainian athletes there, it will be a failure, to be honest,” Maguchikh said .

Read also:

She renounced Russian citizenship: what is Ukrainian saber fencer Kharlan known for?

Ukrainians have lifted the ban on competitions with Russians: what’s the catch?

“I no longer have an idol”: high jumper Maguchikh about Lasitsken


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