Ukraine Unveils First-Ever AI Olympic Team for Paris Olympics in Honour of Athletes Killed in the War

Ukraine provides haunting emotional moments at the Olympic Games in Paris: Using artificial intelligence they have brought to life a digital Olympic team made up of six deceased Ukrainian athletes.

The hero of the campaign is the young boxer Maksym Halinichev, who died on the front line in 2023 at the age of 22. Five other young athletes are at his side: Anastasiia Honcharova (cyclist), Fedir Iepifanov (fencer), Oleksandr Peleshenko (weightlifter), Mykyta Zasiadko (swimmer) and Mykola Zhydkov (footballer). All of them lost their lives in the war. And with the consent of their families, they tell their very personal stories as AI athletes so that they can live on at the Olympic Games - their true dream goal.

"The Revived" was presented for the first time by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and Brand Ukraine at an event in the Olympic Village in Paris this week. The film about the fallen athletes and their mission will be distributed and shared on many international channels and prominent brand ambassadors will join as supporters and advocates of the initiative. The AI characters of the fallen athletes were created based on photos and video footage provided by their families, with AI tools generating deceptively lifelike characters. The initiative is designed not only to commemorate the dreams and hopes of the fallen athletes, but also to draw attention to the impact that the ongoing wars around the world have on sports.

"We honour our fallen athletes in a respectful and innovative way. Ukraine loses young and talented men and women every day due to the war. They might have become Olympic champions or Nobel Prize winners. That is why we created "The Revived": We want to draw attention to the ongoing suffering," said Tim Makarov, head of content & digital at BRAND UKRAINE. Serhil Bykov, spokesman for the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, also reminds us of the important social and political role played by the athletes of the active Olympic team, as well as those of the fallen.

Frank Hahn, chief creative officer of the responsible agency group TEAMBBDO, said, "It is important to us that the Olympic Games also send a powerful message of peace. To this end, we used a unique AI technology that makes it possible to bring dead athletes back to life and tell their story in an extremely moving, credible and emotional way". Added Inna Tabachenko, copywriter at BBDO Germany, "People hear a lot about the horrors of war and sometimes the many reports can be numbing. We want to remind people that the Ukrainian victims are not just numbers - they are faces, voices, hearts and dreams".