Yesterday I asked Igor how he sees our sport from the perspective of Ukraine in war. Of course, there will be stagnation, but is there any hope for better times?

Yes! The hope that all this won't go to hell are young athletes, amateurs, current beginners. We have to nourish them because they're the only ones who can replace the current Masters. It's a big challenge for all trainers and organizers.

The world top, mostly consisting of Ukrainian and Russian athletes, can't compete now.

Russian athletes aren't invited to events (rightfully so) and Ukrainians fight for their Homeland so they don't think about trivial matters like training.

The international professional rivalry is losing a lot because of that.

We're going to need many seasons to rebuild the level of rivarly. Current Masters are, unfortunately, in the losing position already.

This was first caused by the pandemic and then perpetuated by the war.

A picture found a few days ago on Yurii Makarov's profile:

The armwrestling table survived a Russian missile attack... This table was at the University of Charkov, the hometown of Rustam Babaiev, Taras Ivakin and many other legends of this sport.