Oleksandr Goliachenko has won three gold medals in jiu-jitsu tournaments since immigrating to Burlington from Ukraine in November 2023, but he puts his own achievements second to those of his family.
Oleksandr moved to Burlington to provide a safer, more stable life for his wife and three children.
“We left because of the war, of course,” he said. “I lived in the safest city in Ukraine, near the border with Romania and Moldova, but there are consequences of the war even in our city. The economy is super bad, and we only have electricity for four or five hours per day.”
Oleksandr used the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) measures to leave his home country and start a new life. He is currently applying to become a permanent resident.
The gold medalist has only been practicing jiu-jitsu for a short time, though he had spent some time in martial arts before immigrating.
“I only started here, in Canada,” he said. “I’ve only been at it for maybe five months. I had some experience in combat sports in Ukraine, but it was 13 years ago and it wasn’t high-level. It was mostly punches, legs, elbows, knees and some wrestling, so I had experience but it wasn’t exactly jiu-jitsu.”
Oleksandr currently trains at Tristar Burlington Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym under Alex Zahabi, brother of Firas Zahabi who trained Canadian MMA legend Georges St-Pierre. Oleksandr won a gold medal in the Ontario Open 2024 jiu-jitsu tournament on May 5 and earned two more at the Next Gen Toronto tournament on July 13.
Despite his victories, Oleksandr said that he was competing to prove to his 9-year-old son, Vitalii Goliachenko, that it was possible.
“It wasn’t my goal to take part in competitions, but I’m always trying to push him,” Goliachenko said. “I’m always telling him to do more, work hard, try more, and my first goal was to take part in a competition to show him that I’m not all talk, that I’ll do it too.”
Vitalii had also been involved in martial arts in Ukraine, and won a gold medal at the 2024 Kids Jiu-Jitsu festival in Brampton on June 8.
Oleksandr spoke about how proud he felt to watch his son place first in his division in the regional tournament.
“I’m telling everybody about it,” he said. “I’m so proud of him. After that competition, I’m looking at him in a different way because he’s such a good sportsman. He did really well, after the competition I watched his fight again maybe ten times, and every day for a week I told him I was proud of him.”
Oleksandr plans to enter into the Toronto International Open 2024 jiu-jitsu tournament on Saturday, Sept. 28, and compete against martial artists from around the world.
