Ukraine boxing icon sends Olympic medals to Russia for special religious gift (VIDEO)
Ukrainian boxing great Vasiliy Lomachenko has handed his Olympic gold medals to a Russian workshop to make a unique gift for his father’s birthday.
Lomachenko won featherweight gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and claimed the lightweight title in London four years later.
The boxer, 33, has used his medals to make a religious-themed present for his father’s 57th birthday.
The gift has been created by the ‘Carved Cross’ workshop in the Russian city of Kostroma, which is well known for its craftsmen.
A clip shared by the ‘Carved Cross’ Instagram account showed the process of turning two small pieces of Lomachenko’s Olympic medals into part of a crucifix to be worn around the neck.
“The @krestik_reznoi workshop has completed a unique order for the first time in the history of jewelry making,” the workshop proudly wrote.
“There are no other such cases in the world…
“Just think about it, a pectoral cross made of Olympic medals. Medals that a person earned with blood and sweat, on which a whole life is laid, medals that went down in the history of global sport.
“How much spirit, courage and nobility is needed to make a pectoral cross out of them without hesitation for the closest and dearest person – the father!
“There is no limit to our delight and respect, Vasiliy Anatolyevich @lomachenkovasiliy!”
Lomachenko is a devout Orthodox Christian, although his faith has sometimes drawn scrutiny in Ukraine as he follows a branch of the religion under the Moscow Patriarchate, rather than Kiev.
Last year, Lomachenko appeared alongside fellow Ukrainian boxing great Oleksandr Usyk in a religious film, ‘Hello, Brother! Christ has risen!’, in which they discussed the importance of their beliefs.
Lomachenko emphasized that he considers Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians as one and the same people.
The pair were hit with a backlash, being added to the infamous ‘Myrotvorets’ list in Ukraine of supposed ‘enemies of the state’.
Lomachenko also faced criticism after his most recent fight in New York’s fabled Madison Square Garden, where he celebrated victory in the ring with the flag of his hometown of Belgorod-Dnestrovskiy draped across his shoulders, rather than that of Ukraine.
Ukrainian former world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko was among those to publicly call out Lomachenko for a supposed lack of patriotism, even though the boxer has frequently displayed Ukrainian colors in the ring down the years.
The fight itself saw Lomachenko earn a dominant victory over Ghana’s Richard Commey.
It was a second successive win for the Ukrainian as he looks to recapture the lightweight titles he lost in a shock defeat to Teofimo Lopez in October of 2020.
Lomachenko, a former three-weight world champion, is now eyeing a shot at current lightweight ruler George Kambosos Jr. of Australia, who stripped Lopez of the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and Ring magazine lightweight titles in their meeting in November.
