A Paralympic athlete auctions his Tokyo medal to finance the Ukrainian Army

Serhii Yemelianov is Ukrainian and is 28 years old.

His idols are Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.

He resides in Dnipro, the fourth most populous city in the country where, at the beginning of the month, and as EL PAÍS's special envoy María Sahuquillo recounted, people were preparing for Moscow's offensive.

Some joining the defense forces, others making

and many others preparing food for the soldiers.

Yemelianov's dream has always been to win Olympic gold.

He got it at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, in the KL3 200m category, and he got it again in Tokyo last August.

That day, when he happily showed his medal on the podium, he did not imagine that seven months later he would part with it.

A few days ago, he announced that he was auctioning this metal to help the Ukrainian Army in the fight against the Russian troops that invaded his country on February 24.

The fight, organized on the Facebook page of the presenter Solomiya Vitvitska (with which the athlete made the announcement), will end on April 7.

“I ask you to reinforce our soldiers of the Armed Forces in the protection and defense of Ukraine.

The greatest need now is military equipment.

We have more defenders of our homeland than ammunition.

Let's help the 25th and 30th brigades, "wrote the four-time world champion on Instagram.

The initial price of the auction has been set at 12,000 hryvnias (367 euros), while the minimum increase is 6,000 hryvnias (183 euros).

Serhii Yemelianov is not the only sportsman helping to defend his country.

Tennis player Elina Svitolina announced at the end of February that she will donate all the prizes she wins in tournaments to the armed forces and to humanitarian actions to protect the population.

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