CNN Sports<\/a> ahead of the swimming portion of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, the 22-year-old offered a frank insight into his ascent to the top of the sport.\n <\/p>\n\n \u201cPeople will look and see that I\u2019m world champion. But what they don\u2019t see is how long the road and the journey is to that medal and podium,\u201d Bukhov said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI have been swimming since the age of seven. That means I was swimming for 14 years \u2013 well over half my life \u2013 before I won gold in Doha.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere have been a lot of sacrifices along the way to get me to where I am today.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"Bukhov](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-2011106018.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Bukhov\u2019s unlikely success becomes more impressive once learning that despite starting the sport at age seven, he didn\u2019t swim in a competitive race until he was 15 years old in 2018.\n <\/p>\n
\n When asked why it took him so long to transition into competitive swimming, Bukhov explained that his introduction to the sport was never based around \u201cdreams of medals or fame.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI tried all the sports growing up. Swimming didn\u2019t become my main focus until I was a teenager,\u201d he recalled.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAt first, I got into it because I loved the modern pentathlon. So, in the beginning, I saw it as just a small part of my sporting life.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut as I got older, it became clear that I had a talent for swimming. That\u2019s when my parents stepped in and said they would take me to a proper coach.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Like all Ukrainians, Bukhov\u2019s life has been deeply affected by Russia\u2019s aggression toward his homeland.\n <\/p>\n
\n Back in 2014, before the current full-scale war in Ukraine, Russian paramilitaries seized control of Bukhov\u2019s hometown of Donetsk in the country\u2019s eastern Donbas region.\n <\/p>\n
\n Only 11 years old at the time, Bukhov and his family were forced to leave their home and travel 10 hours west to the relative safety of Kyiv.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt was a very scary time for us all,\u201d the swimmer said. \u201cI was quite young at the time, so I didn\u2019t fully understand what was going on.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy main memory is just the sadness of needing to leave where I was from and move to somewhere completely new.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n After nearly eight years in the nation\u2019s capital, the pain of fleeing Donetsk had started to feel like a distant memory for Bukhov.\n <\/p>\n
\n Those memories came flooding back for him and his family, though, in late February 2022, when Russian forces crossed Ukraine\u2019s eastern border and encircled Kyiv just a few days later.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI thought we had left all the fighting behind us. When I woke up that morning and heard the news that Kyiv had been surrounded, I struggled to believe my family and I had found ourselves in the same situation all over again.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n More than three years later, life for most Ukrainians has yet to return to normal.\n <\/p>\n
\n For elite athletes like Bukhov \u2013 who rely on routine and stability \u2013 training and preparation have had to be heavily adapted.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt is impossible to train normally. We can\u2019t even do simple everyday things, let alone all the stuff that professional athletes have to do,\u201d Bukhov said.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Bukhov](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-2164845271.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAir raid sirens constantly interrupt our lives \u2013 whether we\u2019re in the pool, in the gym, or just trying to sleep at night. We can\u2019t do anything without this constant fear.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n In recent months, Bukhov says the drone and missile attacks on Kyiv seem to be increasing in frequency.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cRussia has been bombing us nearly every night. Just the other week, a missile struck a nearby area in Kyiv and over 30 people died.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt does scare you, of course, because each night when you go to bed, you don\u2019t know if you\u2019ll live or die \u2013 if you\u2019ll wake up the next morning. Each day has become a lottery.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n He adds that there have been many occasions where he and his teammates were mid-session in the pool when the screech of air raid sirens forced them to rush to shelters still wrapped in towels.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou never know how much time you\u2019ll have in the pool before you need to get out, so it\u2019s just a case of doing as much as you can while you can,\u201d Bukhov said.\n <\/p>\n
\n There is always pride in representing your nation on the international stage, but for Ukrainian athletes like Bukhov, that pride has grown even deeper as the war rumbles on.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAs an athlete, I feel even prouder now. I am competing for more than just my own glory,\u201d the 22-year-old said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Even before the war, when competing at youth level, Bukhov says he always gave everything to see the Ukrainian flag hoisted above the podium.\n <\/p>\n
\n Now, though, he feels he has found another level of passion and purpose in competing for his country.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen I travel abroad to competitions, I\u2019m one of the lucky few who gets to temporarily leave the war. \u2026 Normal people don\u2019t get a break from the bombing and the sirens, so I try to do my part in my own way.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI tell myself that if I swim fast and continue to break records, people back home will get a small distraction from reality and feel pride that Ukraine is still succeeding despite everything.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cDuring war, there\u2019s no option but to keep going and try to live as normally as we can. For some, that means going to university or an office. For me, that\u2019s swimming faster.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf everyone does their job in Ukraine \u2013 no matter how small \u2013 it can make a big difference collectively. That\u2019s what I keep telling myself.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Heading into the swimming portion of the World Aquatics Championships, Bukhov is aiming to return to his best form \u2013 something that eluded him at last summer\u2019s Olympic Games in Paris.\n <\/p>\n
\n Having been crowned world champion just a few months before the Games, the Ukrainian struggled to follow up on that breakthrough performance, placing 11th overall in the 50-meter freestyle.\n <\/p>\n
\n On the wrong side of swimming\u2019s razor-thin margins, Bukhov missed out on the Olympic final by just 0.13 seconds.\n <\/p>\n
\n It was not a new pain for the swimmer either, having placed in the exact same position \u2013 one spot outside the finals \u2013 in the 2021 Tokyo Games.\n <\/p>\n
\n But he has used these disappointments to fuel his motivation to defend his world title.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Bukhov](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-1331443820.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAt the Olympics, I was very disappointed. I was a little bit sick and wasn\u2019t able to perform my best or live up to my own standards,\u201d he told CNN Sports. \u201cI\u2019m heading to Kallang with one goal: to swim faster than I ever have before.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cLet\u2019s see where that leaves me on the podium. But in my mind, when I\u2019m up on the starting block, my only thought will be about chasing a new PB and breaking my national record.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The journey itself to Singapore is another reminder of the often-overlooked consequences of war.\n <\/p>\n
\n With Ukraine\u2019s airspace closed, Bukhov will take a nine-hour train west to the Polish border before crossing into the town of Che\u0142m.\n <\/p>\n
\n From there, he\u2019ll take a further three-hour train ride to Warsaw, where he and his teammates will finally board a flight to Singapore.\n <\/p>\n
\n In total, they will spend more time traveling to the airport from Kyiv than they will in the air en route to Southeast Asia.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s not ideal, but we\u2019re used to it now,\u201d Bukhov said. \u201cThe journey will be long, so I have to make sure I make it worthwhile.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link Ukrainian swimmer Vladyslav Bukhov knows better than anyone just how fine the margins in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-301387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114936954647902414","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}