Thanks to George Teseleanu and his team, the Ukrainian Judo Federation (UJF) and the International Judo Federation (IJF), with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, have already evacuated 300 children under the age of 18, who are now accommodated and will be able to continue practising judo in Constanta, on the shores of the Black Sea in south-eastern Romania.
“Our young sportspeople were welcomed by George Teseleanu, the owner of the local sports club on a bank of the Black Sea,” explained UJF, before adding, “As long as the war continues in Ukraine, our young judoka will be provided with accommodation and food and they will be able to continue their studying and training process.”
Everything began with an idea and a few phone calls. Following an idea of George Teseleanu, the offer to evacuate children was proposed by the President of the Judo Fight Federation of the Transcarpathian region, Valeriy Peresoliak and it was immediately supported by the president of the Ukrainian Judo Federation, Mykhailo Koshliak. It then needed to be implemented.
The transfer of the young judoka took three days, from 1st to 3rd April. They came from all parts of the country, including regions around Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Khmelnytskyi, Volyn and Transcarpathia.
The IJF was contacted and asked for help to evacuate the young and talented judo people to the nearest European Union country and to take them away from the war.
IJF President Marius Vizer, together with the President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine Sergey Bubka, offered help and coordinated the project with George Teseleanu from Constanta who was willing to welcome more than 300 people and provide them with all the necessary support.
In Ukraine, all regional judo organisations started to gather together the young judoka, providing transfers from the most remote parts of the country, including places with active military actions.
Mykhailo Koshliak is particularly grateful to all those who facilitated this operation and responded, “Firstly, I am sincerely grateful to everyone who helped in this hard time. We are grateful to the IJF and the representatives of judo clubs in Romania who have welcomed our children. I am sincerely grateful to the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Ukraine, Vadym Hutsai, and our governmental coach Mykhailo Rudenko for solving many issues related to the crossing of the border, for instance.
We are grateful to our regional associations. We are united and we are always ready to help each other.
We are grateful to our Chief Executive Officer Inna Skorokhodova, who showed great leadership and did everything she could. We hope our children will be able to continue their training process in a proper way and the war in Ukraine will be finished soon.”
George Teseleanu explained, “Currently, in the Academy Hotel Venus Resort, we are hosting 27 coaches and 300 Ukrainian judoka aged between 8 and 29 years old, who have arrived from twelve different regions of Ukraine. War is an improper way to find a solution and at this difficult moment it is crucial to put people’s safety first and offer them shelter. The entire premises of the Academy Hotel is at the disposal of Ukrainian judoka and their families. The athletes have access to a dojo, a gym area, tennis and basketball courts and also the beach, as the hotel is by the seaside. I hope that we can offer a quiet and stable environment where the judoka and their coaches can continue practising in their quest for better results.
With the full support of the IJF and its President, Mr Marius Vizer, and in accordance with the tradition of Jigoro Kano’s code, i.e. the moral code of judo, we want to build on these values of courage, honour, modesty, respect and friendship. We wish to offer the right climate to help Ukrainian judoka get through this difficult war period. The whole of the Romanian judo family present here in Constanta is actively involved in making sure that the experience of these events will soon be considered a life challenge that have made us, as a family, come out stronger and more united.
As Gustav Mahler once claimed, ‘tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire’ and if the sports community does not make the efforts to remain united and strong, to support each other and our universal values, in order to always promote peace and friendship, harmony and unity, as is encouraged by the IJF President, then we will soon have no tradition to preserve.”
Serhii Sinilov, judo coach of the Dnipro region, explained how they were welcomed, “We reached Romania on a big bus and crossed the border at night without any problems. We were offered tea and some food on the border, volunteers welcomed us. The next day we were in the hotel and again everyone was very nice with us. The hotel is located on the seashore; the food is great and all the conditions for training are perfect.
We have two training sessions per day for each region. Usually, we have randori in the morning and physical training in the evening. We have children of different ages, including cadets. We are trying to separate them into similar age groups, to provide highly quality training. Children also have online studies. Our judoka, their parents and coaches are grateful to the President of the Ukraine Judo Federation, to the IJF and to everyone who was involved in this process. It was a very important decision which can help to protect our children from the threats of war and preserve their training process.”
The whole judo community is saddened by the situation in Ukraine and by its consequences. One of those, which is very positive, is that in these difficult times, the judo family comes together to protect those who need it the most.