Here you can view our timeline of activities, starting from our launch date.
Anastasiia returned to Brasov where the ice arena was once again operational. During her time away, she trained under Andrey Primak in Bulgaria, a coach with Ukrainian roots and a professional background representing Germany, now coaching in Switzerland. In the Czech Republic, Anastasiia met the renowned figure skating coach Rudolf Brzezina. In addition, Anastasiia received an invitation from the Ukrainian federation to participate in the 5th stage of the Junior Grand Prix in Gdansk, Poland, from September 27-30, 2023.
During this period, Anastasiia participated in an elite skating training camp in Deurne, Belgium. The Bond of Sports Foundation covered the fees for this camp, providing support as there was no available ice in Brasov, Romania, where Anastasiia had been training.
Alina delivered a masterful performance to win the U17 ILCA 6 Youth Worlds in Dziwnow, Poland. Read more about the competition here.
We connected with Anastasiia Vasylchenko, currently residing in Brasov, Romania. Amidst the challenges following her displacement due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Anastasiia has been striving to continue her figure skating training. With the ice arena in Brasov closing for the summer months and the absence of support from the Ukrainian sports authorities, she travels to Bucharest for training.
Alina wins the women's ranking at the EurILCA Europa Cup ILCA4 in Riva, Italy. Her journey to this competition was supported by The Bond of Sports Foundation, which covered her travel expenses.
We spoke with Alina Shapovalova about the support she needs in preparation for the major competitions leading up to the 2024 Olympics. Currently residing in Switzerland, Alina cannot sail in the Black Sea for about 5 to 10 years due to naval mines in the ocean and on the beach. As a result, she travels to Spain approximately every two weeks to practice her sailing. With the ongoing war, the Ukrainian Ministry of Sports and the Ukrainian Sailing Federation are unable to provide assistance.
The Bond of Sports made contact today DRCS Sailing in central Switzerland, where Ukrainian youth athlete Alina Shapovalova has been training since the spring of 2022. Alina is in need of funds to support her training for the 2023 European Championship and the 2023 World Championships and the DRCS is looking for our help to make this possible.
With limited funds and the training season coming to an end, Ukrainian youth rowers have returned to Ukraine where they are with their families again and attending school. They will continue to train indoors until the 2023 season begins and they will need to leave the country again. Our fundraising and search for sponsors to help support their training next year continue.
We have secured housing for up to four Ukrainian youth athletes and one assistant in Lucerne Switzerland. Thanks to Olympic champion Mario Gyr, we have also secured training facilities in Lucerne for the entire team of 14. We continue to search for accommodations for 13 team members.
We were able to speak with our first athlete, Nikita Puzhalov and capture his story in in detail during an in depth interview. We also published a video of this interview on our YouTube channel.
The Bond of Sports Foundation and Powerlungs announce they will combine resources to support Ukrainian youth athletes who have been unable to train in their war-torn home country since Putin's invasion. Combined, we have raised several thousand dollars for this cause and are actively working to find housing and training facilities for these displaced athletes. Powerlungs is a Swiss non-profit organization that has supported youth athletes locally for decades and won numerous awards for its work, including The Kantonaler Sportpreis Kanton Luzern and the Prix Chapeau Luzern. It was also the first European organization to win the CHEST Foundation Grant for its work supporting young asthmatics at ceremony hosted by entertainer Paul Schaeffer.
Today we officially launched our site introducing The Bond of Sports Foundation and its mission to help impoverished Ukrainian youth athletes. We believe that our organization will have a great impact not only on the athletes themselves, but also the international world of sports. See here for more on the activities we are undertaking and the impact we are making.