Ukrainian athletes have earned record 29 medals at the Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing.
“The national team of Ukraine has put a golden end to its performance at the Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing. On the final day of the competition, our athletes won the victory in cross-country skiing in the 4×2.5 km open relay,” the press service of the National Olympic Committee said.
In particular, Dmytro Suyarko (guide Oleksandr Nikonovych), Hryhoriy Vovchynsky, Vasyl Kravchuk and Anatoliy Kovalevsky (guide Oleksandr Mukshyn) brought Ukraine 11th gold and a total of 29th medal in Beijing 2022. “This is an absolute record for Ukraine at the Winter Paralympics,” the Committee stressed.
Thus, Ukraine takes the second place at the Paralympics with 11 gold, ten silver and eight bronze medals.
Ukrainian athletes won two more medals at the Beijing 2022 Paralympics.
“The fifth day of the Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing brought Ukraine two medals. They were won in different classes of freestyle sprint skiing,” the National Olympic Committee said in a statement.
Oksana Shyshkova, performing among visually impaired athletes (guide Andriy Marchenko), has already won her second silver and fourth prize at this Paralympics.
Hryhoriy Vovchynsky has already collected a full set of medals in Beijing 2022, and he added bronze in cross-country skiing to gold and silver in biathlon.
In total, Ukraine’s national team has already won 19 medals: six gold, eight silver, five bronze, and ranks third in the medal standings, behind China and Canada.
The national team of Ukraine finished its performances at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo (Japan), receiving 98 medals, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“The 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo are over. Thanks to our athletes, Ukraine has again shown a high result and took 6th place in the overall standings! Our Paralympians won 24 gold, 47 silver and 27 bronze medals,” Zelensky wrote in his Twitter on Sunday, September 5.
He thanked each participant of the Paralympics. “We are proud and congratulate you at home,” the head of state said.
According to Suspilne, Ukrainians participated in 15 sports, in ten of which they were able to win awards. Ukraine received the most medals in the swimming category – 43 medals (14 + 18 + 11), and athletics in second place – 24 (6 + 15 + 3). At the same time, in the shooting, the Ukrainians shared the first place with China in the number of medals – six. In terms of the total number of awards, Ukraine closed the top five and showed the second best result. But in the medal standings, Ukraine finished in sixth place.
In addition to Ukraine, the top ten medal counts of the 2020 Paralympics included China (96 gold, 60 silver and 51 bronze medals), Great Britain (41 gold, 38 silver and 45 bronze), the United States (37 gold, 36 silver and 31 bronze), South Korea (36 gold, 33 silver and 49 bronze), the Netherlands (25 gold, 17 silver and 17 bronze), Brazil (20 gold, 20 silver and 30 bronze), Australia (21 gold, 29 silver and 36 bronze), Italy (14 gold, 29 silver and 36 bronze) and Azerbaijan (14 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze medals).
In just 12 days in Tokyo, 539 sets of awards were drawn for athletes from 86 different countries of the world. This is not a record number of medals won (there were 550 sets of awards in Sydney), but a record number of countries completed the Paralympics with medals.
For the national team of Ukraine, this is the second most productive Paralympics in the number of medals, but for the first time since 2004, the Ukrainian national team dropped out of the top four medals. The last time Ukrainians finished in sixth place was in Athens in 2004.
In Tokyo 2020, Ukraine set a record for silver medals and repeated the result of Beijing and Athens in the number of gold medals.
Some 23 Ukrainian athletes have received more than one award in all time. Swimmers became the leaders in the number of medals won, and Maksym Kripak even won the “personal medal standings”, receiving seven medals. Andriy Trusov also won six medals, Yelyzaveta Mereshko won five medals and Denys Ostapchenko won three medals.
Ukrainian swimmer Andriy Trusov has won another gold medal at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.
“Andriy Trusov won the S7 men’s 50 meters freestyle,” the Paralympics said on Twitter.
The third place was taken, also by Ukrainian swimmer Yevhen Bohodaiko.
Youth and Sports Minister of Ukraine Vadym Gutzeit hopes that Ukraine will be among the top three at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. “I believe that there will be many medals, and the athletes will perform at a high level. The only thing that can interfere is the situation with COVID-19,” Gutzeit said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
When asked whether the Ukrainian team will be in the top three, the minister said that he hoped for it.
Regarding the significant differences in the results of Ukraine at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Gutzeit said that it is impossible to compare Olympic and Paralympic sports.
“There are completely different approaches here. If the Olympic movement is developing all over the world and for all countries the Olympics is the most important event in sports, then the Paralympic movement is really developing only in ten countries of the world. And Ukraine is in this top ten,” he added.
The minister believes that Ukraine’s success at the Paralympics is associated with good funding and the construction of appropriate sports facilities.
“All conditions are being created so that the Paralympians feel that they are normal people, that they go in for sports and fight for their awards,” he said.
Also, the minister called the presence of a large number of veterans who go in for sports as a factor in the success of the Ukrainian Paralympic team.
“For example, we have recently hosted the Warrior Games. This is the largest competition among military personnel and veterans who were injured, wounded and are ill as a result of their official duties in the combat zone. According to the results of the competition, the National Team of Ukraine was formed from 40 participants, which will represent our country for the first time at the international competitions Warrior Games in Orlando (U.S.) in September 2021, in which more than 500 combatants from eight countries of the world (U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Georgia, Denmark, Ukraine) will take part,” Gutzeit said.
As reported, the Paralympic Games will be held in Tokyo from August 24 to September 6. The Paralympics will be attended by 143 Ukrainian athletes who will compete in 15 sports. In Tokyo, 540 sets of awards will be awarded among representatives of 168 countries.
