Kristina Dmitrenko, who won gold at the Youth Olympics, now has her targets set on Russian soldiers.
A Ukrainian woman whose sharp shooting ability helped her top an Olympic podium has said she intends to use her skills to protect her homeland. In 2016, Kristina Dmitrenko, 22, won gold in Lillehammer, Norway at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in the biathlon—the demanding sport that combines the endurance of cross-country skiing with the fine aim of firing a rifle on target. At the end of February, Dmitrenko had been in the Carpathian mountains in the west of Ukraine where she was putting the finishing touches on preparations for an international competition. But when Russia invaded her country on February 24, everything changed. She was due to go to Switzerland on February 27 and then on to Italy to compete but her sporting career paled into insignificance when faced with the images of war she received from friends in Kyiv and her home city of Chernihiv, in the north.
