Maksim Yuryevich Nedasekau (; born 21 January 1998) is a

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian athlete specialising in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

and

praporshchik (, , ) is a rank used by the Russian Armed Forces and a number of former communist states. The rank is a non-commissioned officer's and is equivalent to in the corresponding navies. It is usually equivalent to warrant officer class 1 or serge ...

of the Sports Committee of the

Armed Forces of Belarus The Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus are the military forces of Belarus. It consists of the Ground Forces and the Air Force and Air Defence Forces, all under the command of the Ministry of Defence. As a landlocked country, Belarus has ...

. He was the bronze medallist at the

2020 Olympic Games The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. He also won the gold medals at the 2021 European Indoor Championships, 2019 European U23 Championships and 2017 European U20 Championships. In 2019, he won the silver medal in the team event at the

2019 European Games The 2nd European Games 2019 (, ''Jeŭrapiejskija huĺni 2019''; , ''Yevropeyskiye igry 2019''), also known as the 2019 European Games or Minsk 2019 (; ), were held in Minsk, Belarus, from 21 June to 30 June 2019. The games featured 200 events in ...

. His personal bests are 2.37 metres outdoors (

) and 2.37 metres indoors (Toruń 2021).

International competitions

Politics

Nedasekau supports

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...

. In 2020, he condemned the

protests A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration, or remonstrance) is a public act of objection, disapproval or dissent against political advantage. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate ...

and signed an open letter of the pro-government sportsmen. Nedasekau actively participates in children training in military-patriotic camps. In April 2023, Nedasekau was blacklisted by

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. In July 2023, Nedasekau said in an interview that "Ukraine is conducting hostilities, people are dying, and their athletes are competing and rejoicing. What do I mean? They like to accuse us of competing, smiling, but there are fightings over there. Although, I would like to note, Belarus does not participate in the SMO.''Special military operation'', the term used by Russian propaganda to denote

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

originating from Putin's speech "

On conducting a special military operation "On conducting a special military operation" () was a televised broadcast by Russian president Vladimir Putin on 24 February 2022, announcing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It addressed both the citizens of Russia and of Ukraine, the Armed F ...

" We are

Union State The Union State is a supranational union consisting of Belarus and Russia, with the stated aim of deepening the relationship between the two states through integration in economic and defence policy. Originally, the Union State aimed to crea ...

with Russia, and therefore we provide support. But this is natural and normal, as it should be. But is it normal that the athletes of a country that is at war calmly participate in commercial competitions, earn money and have fun when their compatriots are fighting at the front?"

References

1998 births Living people Belarusian male high jumpers Athletes (track and field) at the 2019 European Games European Games medalists in athletics European Games gold medalists for Belarus European Games silver medalists for Belarus Sportspeople from Vitebsk Athletes from Vitebsk region European Athletics Indoor Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists for Belarus Olympic athletes for Belarus 21st-century Belarusian sportsmen {{Belarus-athletics-bio-stub