As two athletes dismount their tandem bike after a 45-kilometer ride, only one of them takes off his sunglasses.
Vasyl Zakrevsky and Roman Korol aren’t an ordinary pair of cyclists. Zakrevsky, 32, is blind, and Korol, 28, trains him and guides him through cycle races.
“He is my eyes,” Zakrevsky says, smiling.
The two have just completed their last training session before leaving Kyiv to take part in the Paratriathlon European Championship in Lisbon on May 27.
Together they won the Paratriathlon European Championship in 2015, as well as several silver and bronze medals in the Paratriathlon European and World Championships in 2014 and 2013.
Path to triathlon
Zakrevsky wasn’t born blind. His eyes were injured while he was studying in middle school. Little by little, he started losing his sight. After about a year, it was completely gone.
He completed high school, first studying at home and then switching to a specialized school for visually impaired students that taught students using materials in Braille.
When it came to choosing a career path, Zakrevsky went to study massage at a medical school. He graduated in 2002, and began working as a masseur.
At about the same time, Zakrevsky started swimming as a preventive measure against scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.
“Instead, it turned out to be the start of my sports career,” he says.
His swimming improved, but not enough for him participate in the international competitions, so his coach suggested that Zakrevsky try the triathlon.
“We started running in 2011. That was when I met Roman,” he recalls as sits at a table in a gas station café, facing the window.
Korol, who had left for a couple of minutes to buy coffee and snacks, appears behind Zakrevsky’s back. He puts a peanut brittle in front of him, takes Zakrevsky’s hand and places it on the snack.
“What have you been saying about me here? I can hear everything,” Korol says, laughing.
Korol came to paratriathlon from professional swimming – he is an international class athlete and a former member of Ukraine’s national swimming team.
Korol was training for selection for the Olympic Games when his coach asked him whether he wanted to try guiding a blind sportsman. That meant he needed to swim, run and ride near Zakrevskiy during training and in competitions.
“The thing is – if you are a guide, you can’t compete on your own anymore,” Korol explains. He met Zakrevsky and they started training together. It took Korol a year to make up his mind and choose to compete in tandem rather than pursue a solo career.
Korol adds that when they do triathlon – that is swim, run and ride a bicycle – they are not separate individuals anymore.
“Personal ego just takes second place,” he says. “I need to be responsible for Vasya as well, and him for me.”
The training is not as time-consuming as before, and not as exhausting, Korol says. He has used his spare time to open his own sports club, CapitalTRI.
Helping the blind
Zakrevsky also has a side project – See the Hope, a school where visually impaired people can learn for free how to use a walking stick, GPS navigation, computers, and to run. All disciplines are taught by blind people, with Zakrevsky being a track coach.
International organization Pact and U.S. Agency for International Development gave See the Hope funding.
“Visually impaired people often have problems with social adaptation in Ukraine,” Zakrevsky says. “Many just sit at home because they are afraid to go outside and walk around with a walking stick.”
When he lost his sight, Zakrevsky used to walk only with his mother or friends. Now he feels confident enough to go everywhere by himself.
He says that Kyiv is becoming better adapted to the needs of blind than it was before, but it is still far from convenient.
For example, the city doesn’t have tactile pavement for the blind, as in some European cities. Such pavements have colored tiles with raised blisters, lozenges and grooves to alert the visually impaired and blind to hazards, such as platform edges and to guide them around obstacles .
Another problem, according to Zakrevsky, is the attitude towards blind people in Ukraine.
“Oh, look, a blind person is coming! Give up the seat for the blind man! I don’t need anyone to give up a seat for me. I’m the same as everyone else,” Zakrevsky says, adding that he hopes Ukrainian society will soon understand that blind people are not “defective.”
In his words, blind people have “a huge potential” to be discovered.
Zakrevsky was lucky enough to discover his, in sports. Like his guide, he is looking forward to the coming race.
“Of course I want to come first,” he says. “But we will see. This is a competition, after all.”
Editor’s Note: This article is a part of the “Journalism of Tolerance” project by the Kyiv Post and its affiliated non-profit organization, the Media Development Foundation. The project covers challenges faced by sexual, ethnic and other minorities in Ukraine, as well as people with physical disabilities and those living in poverty. This project is made possible by the support of the American people through the U.S. Agency for International Development and Internews. Content is independent of the donors.
