At 34, Georgii Zantaraia has made up her mind.
The Ukrainian world champion, of Georgian origin, joined the troops of the Ukrainian army to defend his country from the Russian invasion which began on February 24.
On Facebook, on March 3, the Ukrainian judoka who had participated in the Tokyo Games last summer, said: “I am Georgii Zantaraia, triple European champion and world champion.
A week ago, Russia attacked my country.
The population is now in danger.
I stay at home and I am ready to defend my country”.
Three days later, he posted the following message: “Joint efforts led to the evacuation of more than 70 people from the capital to the western border of Ukraine.
We are still working on it!
Georgii Zantaraia runs a judo school in kyiv, he was elected in local elections last year.
During his career, he competed in interclubs with the Italians of Ancona and the Romanians of Constanta.
In the Italian press, Zantaraia delivers a moving testimony: “I took up arms to defend kyiv.
Putin is an aggressor, not a judoka.
Russian politicians are crazy, I don't understand what they are doing.
Many children are killed, it's unbelievable.
Before specifying his new daily life: “The Games seem so far away to me... I resist in a bunker with ten friends.
I have everything I need.
But everyone here is armed, we defend our country, our cities.
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"This time, it's not the time to leave"
As for his commitment, it goes back to his Georgian origins: “I didn't stay here to become popular, but because it's my home.
I will not repeat what my family did, who fled Georgia in 1992. My parents came to Ukraine, Georgia is in my blood but it is my country now.
This time it's not the time to leave, I never will.
Until, in fact, it was all over.”
George Teșeleanu, the president of the Romanian club, told the press in his country: “From what I understand, Georgii is under arms, voluntarily, in kyiv.
His family managed to leave Ukraine.
We offered to host her in Constanța, but she had already gone elsewhere (Editor’s note to Poland)”.
Georgii Zantaraia is not the first athlete to take up arms to defend his country.
He joins a battalion which notably includes renowned athletes such as boxers Klitschko (Vitali, also mayor of kyiv, and his brother Vladimir), Oleksandr Usyk and Vasyl Lomachenko, or tennis players Andrei Medvedev, former finalist at Roland-Garros in 1999 and Sergiy Stakhovsky and MMA champion Yaroslav Amosov.
Cyclist Yaroslav Popovych feels ready to take up arms while Bordeaux footballer Danylo Ignatenko admits to having thought about it too.
Some athletes fell at the front, the footballer, Vitalii Sapylo, 21 years old or others during the bombardment like the footballer Dmytro Martynenko, 25 years old or the biathlete Yevhen Malyshev, 19 years old.