On May 6, local time, the Ukrainian Olympic Committee released a news that the country's weightlifter Oleksandr Pyreshenko was killed in a military operation on May 5 at the age of 30.
Born in January 1994, Pyleshenko won the men's 85kg title at the 2016 European Championships in Norway with a snatch of 168kg, a clean and jerk of 204kg and a total of 372kg. One year later, at the European Championships in Croatia, Pireshenko won the men's 85kg championship again with 175, 211 and 386 kg.
Pileshenko competed at the Rio 2016 Olympics against Chinese weightlifter Tian Tao. In the men's 85kg competition, Pileshenko snatched 175 kg, clean and jerk 210 kg, and finished fourth in the Olympic Games with a total score of 385 kg.
In April 2018, Pyreshenko was banned for six years until March 13, 2026, after testing positive for the banned drug chlorthalidone.
At the beginning of 2022, after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Pireshenko resolutely joined the ground armed forces of Ukraine. After more than two years of service, Pireshenko was killed in a military clash at the front.
Deaths of Olympians in war conflicts are already very rare, and in the 21st century, Pyleshenko is the second Olympian to die in a war conflict, and the first to die in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.