Fast forward two years, 27-year-old sport climber is gearing up to compete in the boulder and lead events at the upcoming Paris Olympics, which get underway from 26 July until 11 August. This remarkable achievement seemed inconceivable when she and her family were among the millions forced to flee Ukraine following the full-scale invasion.

"I woke up, looked at my mum because we shared a bedroom and was like, what was that? What are those sounds? And then it happened again," she told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"Everyone was leaving. Everyone was trying to escape. It was just a horrible time where you don't really have food, you don't really have anything and you're not allowed to stop. We pulled out our phones and started looking on social media and there was news all over that it started, explosions all over Ukraine. 

"I just remember trying to pack up my stuff and my hands would not stop shaking. You keep going, sometimes you're in this five-kilometre line to the border and you move five metres every few minutes. 

"You cannot sleep. You cannot properly take care of yourself. We arrived in Germany fully exhausted, and even though it was a really hard experience, we were still privileged enough to have the possibility to escape in the first place because so many people had to stay behind," she added.

Kazbekova now lives in Salt Lake City, USA, with her parents in Manchester, UK, and grandparents in Dnipro, Ukraine, all of whom competed internationally in the sport. She is now set to make her Olympic debut after missing the Tokyo Games three years ago due to an injury and a positive Covid test that kept her from participating in the last qualifying event.

"Climbing is really like a part of my family," she said. "It's the thing that kept me sane during the first months of the war. That was the only time I could put my phone down and concentrate on myself and stop updating the news and stop worrying and just do what I love.

The Ukrainian star secured her spot in the Paris Olympics by finishing sixth overall in the Olympic Qualifier Series held in Shanghai and Budapest last month.

"Being in Paris, being able to put my Ukrainian uniform on and show the world how resilient Ukrainians can be, that's the dream come true. That's the biggest motivation I have for now. 

"How much it means right now for Ukraine to have representation out there in the world to keep reminding people that we still need help, we still need support. We are still struggling so much and this fight, it matters," she concluded.