The Ukrainian MRU volleyball player finds solace in sport as war rages on in her native Calgary
Nataliia Klimenova practically grew up playing volleyball.
Her pure love for the game goes back as far as she can remember, so stepping on the pitch never felt like a dream. Instead, she says it felt like fate.
“My mother played for the Soviet Union team,” said Klimenova. “I grew up watching my parents play beach volleyball and build sandcastles under the rafters.”
In the Ukrainian factory town of Severodonetsk, volleyball was king and local Superleague players were idolized.
From a young age, Nataliia joined many people and packed the sport’s local Ice Palace to watch the athletes compete and imagine what it must be like to be in their shoes.
At 5’6, she wasn’t exactly a lock to go pro – but her parents encouraged her to pursue her passion.
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Years later, Klimenova’s career took her across Europe and across the ocean to Mount Royal University in Calgary.
Klimenova trains as the Mount Royal Cougars prepare for the Final Four match between Canada and West against the University of Alberta.
Tom Reynolds / Global News
By early 2022, she was ready to take another big step forward.
“I got a call from the national team from Ukraine and they said: ‘We want to see you, we’ll pay for the flights, we’ll have the opportunity to record you here,'” Klimenova recalled. “My ex-teammates, who I grew up with there, said, ‘Come on, this is going to be the best season ever’. I was so excited.”
After COVID-19 halted all travel plans, she was particularly excited to be reunited with her family after four long years.
But just four days after that call, Russia invaded Ukraine and those plans were shelved.
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It was a terrible case of déjà vu for the far-flung eastern city, which had been seized by pro-Russian militants for several months in 2014 before being liberated.
“It was a disaster,” Klimenova said, watching video of a historic building that has now been reduced to rubble. “Some of the cities have been destroyed and completely erased from the face of the earth, so to speak.”
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While the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC) estimates that nearly three million Ukrainians have fled the country in search of safety, Klimenova’s family is not among them.
She says her father is 56 and must remain legal in case he is called to fight.
Her grandmother is too frail to travel and her mother will not leave the others behind.
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As the family tries to keep in touch, volleyball has become an unexpected outlet for channeling grief and stress — and helping the Klimenovas find surreal pockets of normalcy in a seemingly never-ending war storm.
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“You try to be a little bit happier if you get a chance to talk to them every once in a while just so as not to stress them out,” Klimenova said. “You’re in tears answering their questions about how your game was.”
I send them little videos – they had trouble getting internet for a while – but as soon as they get the service… they’re like, “Oh, you had a great dig.” You say, “Yeah, but you know Grandma’s house was bombed…” It’s surreal.”
Other days pass without any contact.
Klimenova has received calls from strangers at home telling her that her family is fine.
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While she hopes peace will soon come to her homeland, she is unsure where people can return to.
A continent away, all she can do is wait for the next call, focus on her game and dream of the day when she can bring her family to Canada.
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