There are 43 Ukrainian athletes competing at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. They ski, they snowboard, they luge and they figure skate, among other sports.
Sochi is a two-hour plane ride from Kiev, Ukraine's capital. There, countrymen of Ukraine's 43 Olympians are dying in the streets.
See also: Gay Rights Activists See Insult and Opportunity in Sochi
Violence has engulfed Kiev this week in an explosive escalation of months of tension between protesters who favor closer ties with Europe and an increasingly embattled government allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The city's main square burns as the world watches via Internet live stream. Demonstrators have been killed, battered, bloodied. Witnesses describe police officers trapped, burning to death in an armored vehicle. A journalist was shot and killed, one of 25 new deaths in Kiev that The New York Times reported Wednesday morning.
Through it all, the Ukrainian Olympic team competes, representing its fractured country.
The Olympics are hailed as something of a global singalong, a time for the world's nations to unite over commonalities. But when your country is a tinder box set next to a keg of gunpowder and 25 violent deaths were reported over one night, things are very different.
"Yes it's a distraction," Dmytro Mytsak, a Ukrainian giant slalom skier from Kiev, told Reuters on Wednesday. "Everyone's talking about it — even just now at the start, at the finish, people are saying 'what's happened in your country, what's happened?'"

An anti-government protester, center, throw a Molotov cocktail during clashes with riot police in Kiev's Independence Square, the epicenter of the country's current unrest, in Kiev, Ukraine, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014.
Image: Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press
What's happened is this: Last November, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych rejected a landmark trade deal with the European Union. Many Ukrainians pine for the former Soviet republic to build stronger economic, cultural and political ties with Europe. But Yanukovych ditched that idea in favor of a closer relationship with Russia, leaving many to see Yanukovych as a tool of Russia's President Putin.
An estimated 100,000 Ukrainians flooded the streets on Nov. 24 in the first large-scale Yanukovych protest to gain widespread global attention. By Dec. 3 of last year, that number had swollen to an estimated 1 million people, as police and protesters skirmished. Then, at least in the news cycle, things seemed to simmer down for several weeks. And then, this week: the hellish violence.
"There can be no compromise with a dictator. He must go,” a masked protester in Kiev told Mashable on Wednesday while preparing a Molotov cocktail.

Ukrainian opposition leader and former WBC heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, center, talks to lawmakers in the parliament session hall, in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014.
Image: Sergei Chuzavkov/Associated Press
So here we are. And there, in Sochi, are Ukraine's Olympians. What do you do when you're onstage at the world's tightly-regulated celebration of sport, but carnage and mayhem reign back home?
Maybe you try to wear a black arm band. The Ukrainian athletes tried to do that in Sochi — not as a political statement, simply to mark "deep pain over the loss of fellow countrymen," according to a press release. But the International Olympic Committee denied that request this week in a gesture that seemed to say the Olympics are no place for political statements, even ones that aren't that political.
So far, no one has sabotaged his or her own Olympic chances and refused to compete in hopes of drawing more international attention — or intervention — to Ukraine. But there are still four days to go in the games.
Perhaps arm bands worn by athletes would be meaningless anyway. Or maybe you agree with the IOC that sports and politics don't mix; that to think otherwise would be romantic and grandiose.
The situation developing in Ukraine proves the opposite. One of Yanukovych's staunchest critics is opposition leader Vitali Klitschko. Klitschko forged his reputation as a populist hero while bruising opponents in the boxing ring, becoming heavyweight champion of the world and earning his Ph.D. along the way. His nickname is "Dr. Ironfist."
Dr. Ironfist, still a fighter to be feared, officially vacated his heavyweight title in December, so he could run for president of Ukraine next year. His UDAR party advocates a pro-Western platform while blasting perceived corruption and indifference in the country's political establishment. The UDAR acronym, in English, translates to "punch."

Ukrainian pole vault great Sergei Bubka is interviewed outside the headquarters hotel of the International Olympic Committee, at the 2014 Winter Olympics, in Sochi Russia on Feb. 19.
Image: Mark Carlson/Associated Press
But Klitschko isn't the only link between Ukraine's sporting past and violent present. Ukraine's Olympic chief is a man named Sergey Bubka. Bubka won a pole vaulting gold medal for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Olympics, then competed for Ukraine after the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. Bubka is former member of the Ukrainian parliament and used to be an advisor for the country's controversial President Yanukovych.
Despite his connection to the man for whom that masked protester prepared his Molotov cocktail, Bubka's message from Sochi has been a non-partisan plea for peace:
Deep condolences to victims in Kyiv. My appeal to all sides: please remember the tradition of Olympic Truce, lay down weapons!
— Sergey Bubka (@sergey_bubka) February 19, 2014
Maybe it's Bubka — the athlete turned Yanukovych confidante, turned apolitical sports leader — who most connects the dots between the violence in Kiev and the Games in Russia. Because the whole thing is not as simple as a group of athletes trying to perform at their best amid unthinkable horror back home. With a head sportsman — one directly linked to the nation's despised government — calling for peace, this is sports and politics writ large for all the world to see.
The Olympics in Sochi were meant to be Putin's triumph on the global podium, the $51 billion victory proving Russia's status as a global superpower despite a spotty human rights record. Concerns over environmental impact, early schadenfreude about subpar facilities and widespread outrage over anti-gay laws dominated the lead-up to the games. But sparkling arenas and world-class athleticism have since overshadowed the Sochi problems.
Putin's dream was nearly realized and then, as Pussy Riot activists were being beaten in Sochi, Kiev blew up. Writes The New Republic, "what's happening in Kiev right now is Vladimir Putin's worst nightmare."
Ukraine has deep cultural and political ties to Russia. For months, it's been viewed as a political proxy war for influence between Vladimir Putin's Russia and the West. Given the countries' intertwined histories, New Republic senior editor Julia Ioffe presents a simple thesis for why events in Ukraine should scare Putin: They could easily inspire action and organization in other areas still struggling with the long shadow of the Soviet Union. "If it can happen in Kiev," Ioffe writes, "it can happen in Moscow."
Ukraine's 43 Olympians will return home after the games to a radically different country. No matter how events in Kiev play out, that much is certain. What remains to be seen is whether their Ukrainian countrymen fighting back in Kiev will plant the seeds for a different Russia as well.
An anti-government protester uses a slingshot to throw stones towards riot police on Feb. 19, 2014. Protesters braced for a fresh assault from riot police in central Kiev after a day of clashes left at least 25 people dead in the worst violence since the start of Ukraine's three-month political crisis.
A wounded anti-government protester is evacuated during clashes with riot police on Wednesday.
An anti-government protester wrapped in the Ukrainian national flag stands by a barricade during clashes with riot police on Feb. 19.
Anti-government protesters protected themselves with shields during clashes with riot police in Kiev on Wednesday. The deadly battle has drawn sharp reactions from Washington and generated talk of possible European Union sanctions.
An anti-government protester throws a stone during clashes with riot police on Wednesday.
An Orthodox priest stands at the barricades during clashes with riot police in Kiev's Independence Square on Feb. 19, 2014.
Anti-government protesters walk amid debris and flames near the perimeter of Independence Square, known as Maidan, on Feb. 19, 2014.
A protester, center, throws a Molotov cocktail during clashes with riot police in Kiev on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014.
Anti-government protesters clash with riot police in Kiev's Independence Square, the epicenter of the country's current unrest, on Wednesday.
Anti-government protesters protected themselves with shields during clashes with riot police in Kiev's Independence Square on Feb. 19, 2014.
Anti-government protesters put on gas masks near the perimeter of Independence Square, known as Maidan, on Feb. 19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine.
A view out from inside the Trade Unions Building, which has served as the de facto headquarters for the anti-government protest movement, as the building burns on Feb. 19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine.
A protester prepares to throw a cobblestone at riot police during clashes on Wednesday.
Anti-government protesters throws a rock at riot police on Kiev's Independence Square on Feb. 19, 2014.
Protesters stand guard on the perimeter of Independence Square, known as Maidan, as the Trade Unions Building, which has served as the de facto headquarters for the protest movement, burns on Feb. 19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine.
An injured anti-government protester awaits treatment at the Mikhailovsky Monastery, which has been converted into a makeshift hospital, on Feb. 19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine.
Anti-government protesters guard the perimeter of Independence Square, known as Maidan, on Feb.19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine.
Anti-government protesters walk amid debris and flames near the perimeter of Independence Square on Feb. 19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine.
Anti-government protesters guard the perimeter of Independence Square on Wednesday.
Anti-government protesters sleep on the floor inside the Mikhailovsky Monastery, which has been converted into a makeshift hospital, on Feb. 19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine.
Anti-government protesters protected themselves with shields during clashes with riot police in Kiev's Independence Square, the epicenter of the country's current unrest, Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014.
Anti-government protesters relax at the barricades during clashes with riot police in Kiev's Independence Square on Feb. 19, 2014.
Protesters dig for stones during clashes with riot police in Kiev's Independence Square on Feb. 19, 2014. The deadly clashes in Ukraine’s capital have drawn sharp reactions from Washington, generated talk of possible European Union sanctions and led to a Kremlin statement blaming Europe and the West.
Protesters protected themselves with shields during clashes with riot police in Kiev's Independence Square on Wednesday.
Anti-government protesters protect themselves with shields during clashes with riot police in Kiev on Feb. 19, 2014.
An anti-government protester, right, prepares to throw a Molotov cocktail during clashes with riot police in Kiev on Feb. 18, 2014.
Police officers hold shields as they stand on Independence Square in Kiev on Feb. 19.
Berkut riot police shoot rubber bullets toward anti-government protesters on Feb. 19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine.
An anti-government protester guards the barricades on Independence Square on Wednesday.
Ukrainian truck drivers block the highway leading to the border with Poland near the crossing point in Krakovets, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014.
Ukrainian truck drivers burn tires as they block the highway leading to the border with Poland near the crossing point in Krakovets, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014. The drivers set up the blockade to support anti-government protest in the country's capital Kiev and other cities.