Stanislav Horuna To Auction Off His Olympic Medal For Ukraine Cause
Olympian Stanislav Horuna has announced this week that he is auctioning off his bronze medal from the Olympic Games to benefit his home country of Ukraine. Horuna won the bronze medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in karate, the sport’s first time being a part of the Olympic programme. Horuna is using the proceeds to counter the Russian invasion of his home country after showing that he is still in country to fight.
Announced on March 30th, Horuna is looking to help the cause in Ukraine and is working with Tribuna.com and the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation to raise funds for the cause. It’s estimated that the medal from Stanislav Horuna has a $10,000 value. But some things are more important than money and medals. Horuna says it’s his most valuable medal monetarily and personally, but even more important than that is the freedom of his country, Ukraine.
“My Olympic medal is the most valuable one among that 200 medals I have won for the 19-year-period of my career. It symbolizes every victory on my way to the Olympic Games. And I want to sell it at the auction to support my people at this difficult time. Nothing is more important than Ukraine now.”
The Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, who is hosting part of the auction, is an organization that helps athletes who are wrongfully detained and mistreated by the Belarusian government, a deep ally of Russia. According to their website, “The Foundation’s goal is to provide support to the athletes who were detained and faced repressions for taking part in peaceful manifestations, excluded from the national teams, scratched from competitions, sacked, or stripped from stipends or salaries for expressing their political views.”
Stanislav Horuna and The Ukrainian Cause
Stanislav Horuna is one of many athletes who have opted to stay in Ukraine and fight for the Russian invasion. The Klitschko brothers, Vasyl Lomachenko, Oleksandr Usyk and more have all stayed in their country for some time to fight alongside their countrymen. Just over a month ago, Horuna showed on Instagram the carnage caused by war in his home country. But Horuna remained optimistic and dedicated to the cause saying, “We will kill every occupant who invades.”
For Horuna and the rest of his country, including the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have stayed behind and brought a valiant defense against the Russians looking to take over their country. The invasion, while bloody, has been met with applause by the rest of the world as countries stepped up to the Russian wrongdoing and handed down sanction after sanction, even down to the International Judo Federation, the IOC and World Taekwondo taking honorary statuses away from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Stay posted to My MMA News for more of these athletes stories in Ukraine.
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In addition to covering the ONE Championship for My MMA News, Blaine Henry, the author, also analyzes fights from all combat sports across the globe.
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