""What had meaning in my life, especially in Kherson, has been destroyed. The school where I went from first to eighth grade is destroyed to pieces and the skating rink is destroyed to pieces and my apartment is too that bomb hit one floor below.""
""We have a really strong connection, me and my father. We are always thinking about each other and texting every night and every day. Just good morning. Good night. To make sure that we are both okay. And I can even feel this connection when I'm skating and when I'm on the ice," he said. "It's exactly what I wanted to portray as well in my program, our connection. Even though we are not together, I can close my eyes and I see him everywhere.""
Kyrylo Marsak is a Ukrainian figure skater competing at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan amid personal and national trauma. He escaped Kherson but says the city’s landmarks—his school, the skating rink where he trained, and his apartment—have been destroyed. He describes coping as difficult mentally while his father, Andriy, fights on the front lines. Marsak uses Andrea and Matteo Bocelli’s “Fall on Me” in his short program to evoke and sustain his bond with his father. The family sees each other in person only at the Ukrainian national championships, but they maintain daily contact and emotional connection across distance.
Read at www.dw.com
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