SOCHI, Russia — A gutsy Ukrainian skier chose her people over Olympic glory  Thursday and pulled out of the Sochi games in protest.

Bodgana Matsotska said she could not compete while her countrymen were being  killed and is heading to Kiev to join the rebels fighting to overthrow President Victor  Yanukovych.

“I don’t want to participate when in my country people die,” Matsotska told  The Associated Press.

Between 70 and 100 protesters in Kiev were reportedly killed in the worst  violence since Ukraine split from the old Soviet Union and hundreds more were  injured in clashes with security forces loyal to President Viktor  Yanukovych.

Yanukovych insisted his men weren’t firing live rounds at the people.

But footage shown on Ukrainian television of Orthodox priests blessing the  bodies of fallen rebels painted their president a liar — and angered the  world.  (link)

The 24-year-old skier was supposed to compete in the slalom on Friday, her  third and best event at the Sochi games.

Instead, Matsotska said she is decamping for what the anti-Yanukovych  protesters are calling the Maidan, their fortified encampment in the heart of  Kiev.

“I am in Maidan, but just with my soul,” she said.

As for Yanukovych, the skier added, “as a minimum he has to be jailed, and  for a long time.”

“For all the lives he took, for all the lives of innocent people that came  peacefully to stand for their opinion,” she said. “I hope that I will be heard  by the world and that probably somebody will step in and will help.”

Matsotska said she decided to give up her Olympic dream after deliberating  with Oleg Matsotsky, who is her father and coach.

“It is really hard for a sportsman and coach,” she said. “The people are  dying and my friends and family are there and I cannot race after all this in  Ukraine going on.”

Her dad posted his own defiant message on Facebook, where he ripped into  Yanukovych.

“He has drenched the last hopes of the nation in blood,” his message  read.  (continue reading)