‘A feeling of freedom’: Injured Ukrainian soldiers learn to ski in Whistler for Invictus Games

Serhii Khrapko, a Ukrainian soldier who lost his left arm and leg during fighting in Bakhmut in 2015, says it’s his responsibility to show what life after combat injuries can look like, as fighting rages on in his country.

As Prince Harry and Meghan Markle marked one year until the 2025 Invictus Games begin in British Columbia on Wednesday, Khrapko was at Whistler Blackcomb flying down a run at the winter resort in a sit-ski — a single-ski device for wheelchair-users — as he trains to represent Ukraine at the Games next year.

“It’s a feeling of freedom,” he told CBC News in Ukrainian on Tuesday, speaking through his team manager and fellow ex-soldier, Taras Kovalyk, who acted as interpreter.

“It’s about [being an] example for those who are beginning to come back to restore their health.”

It’s been almost two years since Russia invaded Ukraine in a significant escalation of the long-running Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The number of casualties and injuries on both sides has been difficult to verify, but in August 2023 a report by the New York Times, citing anonymous U.S. officials, put the number of wounded Ukrainians as high as 120,000.

Snow brings Games back to Canada

With the bitter Russian invasion grinding into its third year, the number of injured Ukrainian soldiers grows every day, Khrapko said. Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are barred from leaving the country and must register for military duty.

Currently, only men who are 27 and older can be called up to fight, but at the end of 2023, Ukraine proposed lowering that age to 25 after the military said it needed as many as 500,000 new soldiers to replenish its armed forces.

Khrapko was 37 when he almost died after getting hit by Russian shelling nine years ago. He’s now 46 and likes to share his experience with recently wounded soldiers in hospitals in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. He said the wounded, some of whom are quite young, should be able to see more opportunities to heal in Ukraine, maybe through sport.

“All the things I [had] never done before, I try to do it now,” Khrapko said.

Right now, that means learning how to sit-ski from instructors in Whistler and taking the lessons back with him to Ukraine, so others can return to compete next year.

The 2025 Invictus Games, to be held in Vancouver and Whistler from Feb. 8-16, will be the first time the competition — started by Prince Harry in 2014 for wounded veterans — will feature winter sports like wheelchair curling, skiing and snowboarding, in addition to other core sports such as wheelchair basketball and swimming.

Canada previously hosted the Games in September 2017, when they were held in Toronto. 

The Duke of Sussex told a crowd at an event in Vancouver that they will be returning to Canada because of its snow, adding that many competitors had never even stood on snow before visiting Whistler this week.

“The smiles on the faces I’ve seen over the last few days, it proves why we do what we do,” he said.

Invictus ‘shows that you really could feel happy’

The competition will bring more than 500 competitors from over 20 countries. Athletes compete for gold, silver and bronze medals, but according to the Invictus website, the event is more about “being a part of the shared journey of recovery.”

Some of that advocacy is also being done locally in B.C. by people like Sian Blyth, executive director of the Whistler Adaptive Sports Program. She said the attention the Invictus Games bring to adaptive sports is immeasurable.

“If somebody is just watching on television in some remote part anywhere in the world, who didn’t know they could do any of these sports, that’s a massive opportunity for us,” she said.

“We want more people who have a disability, whether it be a physical disability or neurodiversity, to know that adaptive recreation is possible.”

Trying to find a semblance of normal life after becoming injured in combat was hard in Ukraine, said Kovalyk, Ukraine’s team manager, who was shot in the leg while fighting in 2015, but attitudes are improving.

Traumatic injuries from explosive weapons, such as landmines, artillery shells and grenades, are common in the ongoing fighting and mean many of Ukraine’s soldiers could be living with some form of disability for the rest of their lives.

Kovalyk said he hopes the message from the Games is heard by those men and women.

“Invictus for me shows that you really could feel happy, full of life, no matter what condition of body you have and state of mind — just to feel joy of life and pleasure of movement and everything,” he said.

The heavy price of war still being paid by his comrades and country is ultimately front of mind, even while the Ukraine team tries to paint a hopeful picture of life after the war.

“We are surviving, we are fighting and we will not surrender,” Kovalyk said. “We need just guns and some financial [assistance], and we do the job.”