On Thursday, Jan Beleniouk won a bronze medal in Greco-Roman wrestling (-87 kg) at the Paris Olympics 2024, his third in three editions. But this one wasn't for him, but for his country, Ukraine, where he is a deputy in the Rada, the country's parliament.
So the room rose, unanimously, to pay a heartfelt tribute to the athlete who is deeply respected and appreciated in the world of wrestling, but above all an immense symbol for his country, Ukraine. Jan Beleniouk then took a few steps in the traditional Ukrainian dance, which he adores and with which he punctuates all his victorious bouts. His father is Rwandan. He then placed his wrestling shoes in the center of the mat to symbolize his definitive retirement.
In the Champs-de-Mars Arena, it was the last fight for Jan Beleniouk, now a living icon of the Ukrainian people. He bravely went on to win the bronze medal in the under 87kg Greco-Roman wrestling category against Poland's Arkadiusz Kulynyc: "It was very difficult," he recounted, " I'm getting on in years (33) and the youngsters are pushing on, so it was two very tough days of fighting for me.
A medal for his country
But Jan wasn't fighting just for himself, he was fighting for an entire nation, and above all "for the soldiers who are at the front defending our country foot to foot. That's why he was in Paris. Normally, Jan would have been watching these duels for the under-87kg medals at home in Kiev after a day's work in Parliament. Between two bombings. I knew Zelensky personally," he explains. When he launched his campaign, I said to him: 'If I can help you, I will. So he asked me to be on his list. However, I was surprised to find myself so high up, elected in 10th position."
Since 2019, he had therefore been working as a parliamentarian, but had not put an end to his rich and accomplished sporting career. "I stopped for a year and then resumed to prepare for Tokyo." He had in fact been triple European champion, double world champion and above all Olympic silver medallist in Rio, beaten in the final after a controversial decision. He went all the way to Tokyo to assert his rights. And he became Olympic champion, Ukraine's only gold medal in Rio. This earned him an emblematic status in the Ukraine, as one of the country's leading sportsmen on a par with footballers.
"I had instructions: in the event of an invasion, I was to go to Parliament".
So, after the Tokyo Games, he naturally retired for good at the age of 30. A graduate in psychology and management, he was also an officer in the army. But Zelensky had taken him on as part of his team during his victorious presidential campaign. He had been working on his new job as a member of parliament when, on February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine, changing the destiny of the country in general and Jan Beleniouk's in particular.
"I had instructions that, in the event of an invasion, I was to go to Parliament. I got there at 7 in the morning. Then I went to the military base to which I'm attached." He went to Boutcha, a martyred town, to help the people. And since then, he hasn't heard from any of the wrestlers he used to fight. Particularly the Russian wrestler of Georgian origin he beat in Rio. "Russia has created a system where people can't say anything when their government kills children."
A symbol in Ukraine
Ukrainian athletes were not sent to the front. The confrontation with the Russians is above all a military one, but it is also a matter of symbolism. And Jan Beleniouk is a powerful symbol in Ukraine. He is of mixed race, which is unusual. And that hasn't been easy during his life. He has experienced racism, but when asked about it, he prefers to answer euphemistically: "It was a peculiar time, people didn't know about diversity. Let's just say they used words that weren't right for me. Today, the situation is completely different.
For this reason, he is also a symbol of the evolution and openness of Ukrainian society, which differs from the current Russian model. "My father was Rwandan. He met my mother when he came to study in Kiev. Then he went back to Rwanda and there was the genocide. He was a Hutu, but from what I've been told, he was trying to pacify the situation." He would therefore have belonged to the moderate Hutu party. He died in a traffic accident that is not really clear... His uncle was burnt to death in his home. Jan would discover his father's country much later. He has a half-brother and half-sister there. But he grew up in Kiev with his mother, a seamstress. He tried his hand at basketball, judo and wrestling, a sport for which he joined the Olympic school, the backbone of the national team of which he would later become the emblematic figure.
"Trying to win a medal. For the country, for the guys on the front line".
So inevitably, following the Russian invasion and with the Paris 2024 Games on the horizon, a certain amount of pressure was put on Jan's admittedly solid but tired shoulders: "A lot of people, but also friends, told me that I should try if I had the physical possibilities to go and win a medal. For the country, for the guys on the front. For those who died there.
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Preparation marked by bomb scares
So Jan returned to the Kontcha-Zaspa complex south of Kiev, the Olympic preparation center where he had trained all his life. This is where we found him last April, in full preparation. He was going through hell. In these countries, the physical work is truly cardinal. Jan went from weight training to specific work... And every night, like everyone else in Kiev, he was subjected to bomb alerts... " Last night I was too tired from training to go to the bunker", he told us that April morning in the wrestling room at Kontcha-Zaspa. "But it's true that it's complicated to prepare for the Games in these circumstances. It's not easy to concentrate on performance."
We really felt that in other circumstances, he would have preferred to be elsewhere, working on his files in Parliament, on the status of top-level athletes. But here he was on a mission, putting in a colossal effort because it wasn't about him. "You know, some time ago, a young boxer, Maksym Galinichev, who was training at the center with us, chose to go to the front and was killed by the Russians. So you know my efforts, my sacrifices, are nothing." This bronze medal is a way of paying tribute to this young sportsman who has passed away, and to all the others. "Now I'm going back to Ukraine to work in Parliament.
After a few days' vacation all the same, he was stupidly asked by a French reporter carried away by the elation of the Games. "You know, when you're at war, there are no vacations."
(L'Équipe)
