Ukraine’s first black member of parliament on why he returned to wrestling, and preparing for Paris amid war

It is not something that Zhan Beleniuk, an Olympian and Ukraine’s first black member of parliament, says he can afford to think about now. It is evidently at the back of his mind. He has ideas on what his fellow athletes might do, and even what they should do: it might be best not to compete at all if defeat is on the cards.

But for Beleniuk, 33, the sole Ukrainian winner of a gold at the last Olympics, in Tokyo, the prospect of facing a Russian competitor at the Paris Games in his discipline of greco-roman wrestling has to be a matter for that moment, and not for now.