There are unique tales of hardship, heartbreak, and perseverance at every Olympics and Paralympics that has ever been and in many cases, war has played a key role. 

One of the biggest backstories of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games has been Russia's invasion of Ukraine which resulted in Ukrainians being relocated all over the world as their war-stricken homeland resisted persistent attacks orchestrated by the Kremlin. 

While Russian and Belarusian athletes were admitted on the basis that they competed as neutrals and agreed to be thoroughly vetted for neutrality there has been plenty of pushback from numerous groups, world leaders, and participating athletes. 

In sports both in and outside of the Olympic and Paralympic games, Russian athletes were snubbed by opponents echoing Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan's refusal to shake the hand of her beaten opponent when she was the first Ukrainian athlete to take on a Russian counterpart. 

Ukrainian athletes have dedicated wins to fallen athletes such as two-time European weightlifting champion Olexander Pyolechenko who died "in combat with the enemy" on the front line of the war against Russia.

The first week of the Paralympics in Paris saw another moving tale to emerge from the Ukrainian invasion as two Paralympic athletes, orphaned from a young age were reunited with a former teacher in Paris.

Badminton duo Oksana Kozyna and Oleksandr Chyrkov grew up in an orphanage in Dnipro. Kozyna's parents could reportedly not afford to care for her after she was born without a fibula in one leg while Chyrkov abandoned by his mother not long after he was hit by a car and seriously injured at the age of eight. 

The two ended up in an orphanage in Dnipro, Ukraine which catered for between 60 and 70 disabled children. It is there where Svitlana Shabalina met the two while teaching crafts at a school affiliated with the orphanage. For Kozyna, Shabaline became a "second mother" bringing them food, showing them kindness and inspiring the two to take up para-sports.

"I was their teacher, but I cared for them because they were orphans. So when they come to me, I would do things for them. Like I would give Oleksandr food, " Shabalina explains through an interpreter.

"I did have, like, favourite pupils. They were two of them. So I just loved it and I loved what I did. And they were my kids because I really think they are like my kids."

The two were then recruited by Badminton coach Dmytro Zozulya and are now the only two of around 20 para-badminton players that remain under his wing due to the chaos of the war.

Suddenly you have to stop working, you cannot buy food, it's impossible, you have car, but you cannot buy gas, it's impossible," explains Zozulya. "Children cannot go to school, and we don't have bomb shelters, you have to stay at your home, and of course, everyone is shocked, like panic."

"Some go out of the country, some move to another region, because is so scary. Very, very scary... It's like apocalypse, tsunami," he says.

Kozyna, Chyrkov and Zozulya along with his family now live in northern France after Christophe Guillerme answered the coach's plea for help via a France-based mutual Ukrainian acquaintance back in 2022.

"We got them out of Ukraine, and then we managed to organise three or four training sessions per week," said Guillerme. "They had to get points for this target that was Paris 2024, so we financed them to go to Canada, to go to Ireland, to play tournaments again, and to be able to score points for the race to Paris."

While Kozyna and Chyrkov moved shortly after the war began Shabalina only just moved to Sweden this year and received a surprise visit from Chyrkov while he was training near where she lives in Sweden.

He then invited Shabalina to watch him and Kozyna compete at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games shocking Oksana Kozyna on her Paralympic debut. 

“I didn’t recognize her at first but when I did, I just couldn't believe it. It's like a dream," said Kozyna who had not seen Shabalina for four years.

"I feel a lot of emotions, really a lot," said Shabalina. "I'm so excited and I'm so proud of them."