‘I Don’t Know if I’m Going to Be Alive’: Ukraine Diver Oleksii Sereda Returns to Uncertainty

‘I Don’t Know if I’m Going to Be Alive’: Ukraine Diver Oleksii Sereda Returns to Uncertainty

Ukrainian diver Oleksii Sereda is aware of the right way to deal with stress. That’s true on the boards, the place the 19-year-old has competed internationally since he was 13. And it applies to his life in a house county at conflict for 3 and a half years.

Sereda will carry the silver medal he received on males’s 10-meter platform on the World Championships in Singapore again to an unsure dwelling that has been combating off an invasion by  Russia since 2022.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be alive,” Sereda stated Sunday. “I imply, actually I’m not kidding. Every little thing is feasible. At this time, in Mykolaiv, my pool the place I’ve been coaching for 5 years and after I was younger, was partially destroyed. And typically, rockets are actually shut, and you don’t have any thought should you’re going to get up once more.”

Sereda hails from Mykolaiv, a Black Sea port between Kherson and Odesa in southern Ukraine. Like all athletes from his nation, representing the nation internationally has turn out to be a type of nationwide service.

Sereda does that nicely. He’s medaled in 4 consecutive editions of the World Aquatics Championships relationship again to 2022, with three silvers and two bronze, together with consecutive medals in particular person platform. In between, he completed eighth on platform and fifth in males’s platform synchro (with Kirill Boliukh) on the Paris Olympics after having been sixth in each occasions at age 15 in Tokyo in 2021.

The 19-year-old allowed himself a while to have fun the achievement in Singapore. He completed second to Australian Cassiel Rousseau, with Randal Willars of Mexico third in a uncommon occasion the place the Chinese language powerhouse was stored off the rostrum.

“I really feel glad,” he stated. “I see that I get the silver medal, first in my life. I see progress, and I’m feeling nice. It’s a very nice feeling if you’re working and also you get a consequence. So I will likely be working much more to be the primary.”

Like many athletes, his coaching has been disrupted in Ukraine, forcing him to journey to Hungary and Poland for secure services. However then all the pieces has been disrupted, in a rustic the place assaults vary removed from the entrance strains by way of missile and drone assaults. His father is combating on the entrance, a spot Sereda could be if not for his expertise permitting him to function a consultant of his nation otherwise.

It’s a problem for individuals at dwelling to “sleep usually, to only stay usually,” and that weighs on Sereda whether or not he’s there or not.

“That’s why I’m feeling careworn each single day due to him, attempting to name him as a lot as potential, as a result of it’s actually harmful to be there,” Sereda stated. “I believe in the present day he watched me. I’m undecided, as a result of he’s actually near the entrance, and I don’t know if he had an opportunity to observe me, however I believe most likely sure.”

Sereda’s future is as unsure as his nation’s. He’s heading again to Kyiv, the capital. He’ll get a while off in September. However in any other case, he’ll be working towards his craft, with the hope that it will probably encourage a nation in his personal manner.

“For Ukraine, I believe that it implies that we’re succesful to attain nice outcomes,” he stated. “We’re succesful to struggle even in these situations, and we’re succesful to win. I hope that I encourage somebody. I don’t know, as a result of I’m not a world champion, that’s why I don’t know if I can encourage somebody. However anyway, I would like this conflict to finish as quick as potential, as a result of it’s not regular life. It’s not the way it have to be.”