Anton Svirskyi competes on Friday at the NCAA Championships in Atlanta. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/UAA Communications)
Russian Invasion of Ukraine So Far Away, So Close To Home for Gators Diver Anton Svirskyi
Friday, March 25, 2022 | Men's Swimming & Diving, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The terrifying images of war have flooded our TVs, our smartphones and our social-media feeds for more than a month.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 incited international outrage at Russian leader Vladimir Putin. It marked a significant expansion of a conflict that started eight years ago on the eastern edge of Ukraine.
While many on American soil required a primer on the battle and the tumultuous decade in the region of Eastern Europe, Gators diver Anton Svirskyi is not among them. The 20-year-old Svirskyi is from the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, located in the southeastern part of the country on the Dnieper River.
Svirskyi is a former member of the Ukrainian National Team competing for the Gators in the NCAA Championships this weekend in Atlanta. He moved to the United States in September 2015 with his parents and younger sister. His parents anticipated the growing threat from Russia and sought to escape for a better future while they could.
Seven years later, Svirskyi is thankful for his parents' life-altering decision. Still, he is dealing with a gamut of emotions, knowing that his relatives and friends fear for their lives daily.
"It's very difficult," Svirskyi said. "Sometimes it feels impossible to get through practice or a normal day of activities. I find myself having a lot of sleepless nights, nightmares, waking up crying."
Svirskyi has not been back to Ukraine since moving to Brick Township, N.J., as a freshman in high school. The family settled in New Jersey because his parents had friends there. They lived with their friends for the first two months in America. They acclimated to a new country and with few financial resources.
Life was difficult for Svirskyi, once one of Ukraine's most promising young divers, winning 1- and 3-meter platform junior national championships growing up. He started diving when he was 4 and developed over time to become a student at the country's School of Olympic Reserve, a prestigious school and training center for Olympic-level athletes.
Gators diver Anton Svirskyi prepares for an attempt earlier this season at home against Auburn.
And then it was over.
"We just packed our stuff and left," Svirskyi said. "I was doing well, probably the peak of my career in diving. I remember asking my mom, 'why America, and why not Germany or somewhere closer?' She said, 'I don't want to be on the same continent as Russia.' "
A young teenager immersed in school and training, Svirskyi's life centered on his family and friends. His mother, Iryna Zavalko, and father, Roman Svirskyi, lived comfortably in Ukraine. Svirskyi's maternal grandfather owned a company that produced steel and was a local politician. They had a large extended family for support.
However, his parents sensed danger. They saw it, too, when they gathered on the second-floor balcony of their home and witnessed flashes in the distance from explosions during the early stages of the battle in eastern Ukraine.
"I got to witness people going away and fighting for the country,'' Svirskyi said. "We were really close to the conflict. A lot of stuff, I find out now from my parents, stuff that I wasn't told then."
Life in America provided different challenges.
The family rented a two-bedroom home once they could afford it. His parents took one room, while Svirskyi and his sister, Arina, shared the other. Money was tight as his father tried to support the family as a welder and maintenance man on wages well below what he earned in Ukraine. Svirskyi spoke Ukrainian and Russian fluently, but he did not speak English.
"Your fridge is just empty,'' he said. "Looking back at it now, we were really poor. Then, you didn't think like that. You were just happy you were safe, getting an education, your family is close."
Svirskyi's work ethic took over. He trusted his parents and sought diligently to take advantage of whatever opportunities arose. Anton Svirskyi and his wife, Michelle, also a UF student. (Photo: Via Svirskyi's Instagram page)
If there was a low point, it's the day he accepted that his days as a diver were over when he discovered that his new school did not have a diving team, nor did a nearby college, and no other options existed that worked for his family.
"I thought I said goodbye to diving forever that day,'' Svirskyi said. "It was an emotional day for myself and my parents. It's emotional right now just talking about it."
Svirskyi carved out a new life in athletics by joining his high school's swim team. A natural athlete, Svirskyi became a pole vaulter in track and played receiver and defensive back on the school's football team.
He also met his future wife, Michelle Greenberg, in high school. They met when he was a sophomore, and she was a junior. They started dating his senior year and married in July 2020. Both are current UF students, and Michelle's support has been crucial to Svirskyi. His mind often drifts to the streets and parks of his hometown since the Russian invasion.
"She has been helping me a lot through this,'' he said.
Svirskyi's journey to Florida included a stop at Saint Peter's University, the current darling of March Madness. His inability to continue diving in high school led him to the pole vault, and Svirskyi earned a track scholarship with the Peacocks. He competed for an indoor season at Saint Peter's and by a stroke of fate, the swimming coach heard he was a former diver and offered him a chance to return to diving in the spring of 2020.
At first, the track coach balked at the idea. However, after track season concluded and with five days to practice before the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship in February 2020, Svirskyi managed to finish 11th in the 1- and 3-meter springboard competition.
With his passion for the sport refueled, Svirskyi decided to seek a transfer and contacted numerous Division I schools. Florida was not one of them.
"I know where I'm at right now, I'm not very competitive with what they have,'' Svirskyi said of this thinking at the time. "I didn't think I had a chance. I didn't want to waste their time or my time."
Finally, inspired by a high school friend who attends UF, Svirskyi took a shot. Gators diving coach Bryan Gillooly called about 30 minutes after Svirskyi sent an email to UF's swimming staff.
His American dream took on new meaning.
Gators diving coach Bryan Gillooly embraces Anton Svirskyi on Friday at the NCAA Championships.
"We talked for an hour about just diving,'' Svirskyi said. "I told him my story and how difficult it was moving here."
Gillooly told the Independent Florida Alligator recently that Svirskyi has overcome the odds under challenging circumstances to fit in at UF.
"To carry that weight on his shoulders, make the NCAA Championships this year, and be one of the top-50 divers in Division 1 athletics after taking five years off, says something about his character," Gillooly said.
Whatever he does in his long-awaited return to diving, Svirskyi's thoughts won't stray far from Ukraine. He planned to display various Ukrainian colors during his trip to the NCAA Finals, including a sweater emblazoned with the words "The Ghost of Kyiv" in tribute to an anonymous fighter pilot who reportedly downed a half-dozen Russian fighter jets on the first day of the invasion.
The news from home has been bleak of late.
Svirskyi's grandfather, the one who operated the steel company, recently suffered a heart attack. His grandmother has diabetes and has a leg amputated, leaving her care in question. Svirskyi talks to his mom daily about the crisis and remains in communication with friends and family in Ukraine.
When he does have time to make FaceTime calls to his grandparents, they are usually in the dark due to restrictions on using lights at night. Friends send him photos of places blown away that he once visited. Nothing seems to be the way he remembers.
"It has gotten really bad. My friends who are my age, they can't leave the country,'' he said. "A lot of them said goodbyes to their mothers and sisters and aunts – the female side of the family – and they stayed to fight. Their fathers, brothers, uncles are fighting alongside them.
"They don't study; they don't do sports anymore. These are Olympic-level athletes."
Svirskyi wakes up each day appreciative of the opportunity with the Gators. He said his coaches and teammates care and make him feel at home. He knows he is fortunate to be on the other side of the world.
Still, there are days when there's nowhere he would rather be more than back in Ukraine helping his friends and family defend their native land.
"My friends keep me updated. Sometimes I see the pictures,'' Svirskyi said. "I don't know if it helps my mental state. I really want to go back. I told my mom, 'I would hate to sacrifice everything you guys built for us here, but I can't just sit back and watch my country get destroyed like that, watch my friends get killed, my grandparents in the hospital."
As he talks, Svirskyi's voice cracks. His eyes are glossy. His thoughts race around a place thousands of miles away.
