Two-time Olympic champion in canoe

rowing

, Yuriy Cheban, sold his medals - the country's most decorated rower put up for auction three Olympic medals, two of them of the highest quality, won in 2012 and 2016 in London and Rio de Janeiro, and the "bronze", which the 2008 elections in Beijing.

One goal is to help the Armed Forces.

At the auction, it was possible to collect 100,000 dollars.

This is reported in the story of

TSN

.

"The auction has already ended. It did not go exactly as planned, but it was quite good. We tried to attract attention through the American media. The Washington Post, AP News, TMZ Sport wrote about us. We earned more than 100 thousand and this is only the beginning. We did not orient ourselves for the price, but wanted to collect as much money as possible. We were given an estimate of 150 thousand dollars. It turned out a little less, but we are grateful," the athlete said.

According to him, it was a pity to part with his awards, but he understood that they could benefit the country.

"It's really a shame, but I'm sure these medals should do more than just sit on the shelf. At some point, the country gave me good opportunities and I want to repay the same. These medals will still be useful. I'm sure my example can make many people to do the same, as I was inspired to do this by Slava Medvedenko, who sold his awards at the same auction," the rower added.

Cheban added that he spoke with the future owner of these awards.

"I offered the future owner of these medals to come to us so that he could make sure that these funds benefited Ukraine, so that he could see with his own eyes what Russian aggression has created in Ukraine. He can also return these medals and we can put them to the NOC museum as things that took a direct part in Ukraine's victory," he said.

The athlete also told what the funds will be used for.

"Our charity fund "Olympic Circle" has been helping directly since the beginning of the war. These funds will go to all the needs that exist now. There are a lot of needs and requests, but we are able to spend them on the things we consider necessary and those people which we know. We know those groups of people, military men, our rowers who are currently in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who need help," Cheban emphasized.

We will remind that the former boxing world champion in eight weight categories, Manny Pacquiao ,

held an exhibition fight

to raise funds for Ukraine.

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