Gold medalist Iryna Bui (centre) silver medalist Oleksandra Kononova (left) and bronze medalist Liudmyla Liashenko celebrate after the women’s middle distance event in the women’s pentathlon at the 2022 Winter Paralympics on Tuesday.
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Gold medalist Iryna Bui (centre) silver medalist Oleksandra Kononova (left) and bronze medalist Liudmyla Liashenko celebrate after the women’s middle distance event in the women’s pentathlon at the 2022 Winter Paralympics on Tuesday.
Shuji Kajiyama / AP
While Ukraine battles Russian forces at home, its Paralympic athletes are fighting in Beijing. They have been on the podium not once but twice, bringing home medals despite their distractions and worries.
Ukraine ranks second in number of medals behind China as of Tuesday morning ET, with six gold medals and a total of 17. Its athletes have dominated para biathlon event on Tuesday, with the men’s and women’s teams breaking through the blind and middle distance categories, respectively.
Iryna Bui, Oleksandra Kononova and Liudmyla Liashenko won the top three medals in the women’s middle distance standings. Then the Ukrainian men took the top five places in the middle distance blind race, with Vitalii Lukianenko, Anatolii Kovalevskyi and Dmytro Suiarko each taking to the podium.
Organizers say this makes 43-year-old Lukianenko the most successful male track and field athlete of all time, having won 14 Paralympic medals – including eight golds – since 2002.
Athletes are using their bittersweet victory to draw attention to the tragedy unfolding at home.
“We want to dedicate our results and medals to every Ukrainian and to all the soldiers in the Ukrainian army who protected us,” Bui said, according to Japan. Kyodo News. “With our performance, we represent the whole country, and this is our battle, here.”
Athletes’ hearts are with their families
Oleksandra Kononova of Ukraine collapsed after crossing the finish line and took a silver medal in the women’s middle distance stand on Tuesday.
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Oleksandra Kononova of Ukraine collapsed after crossing the finish line and took a silver medal in the women’s middle distance stand on Tuesday.
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Many spoke to reporters about the dual challenge of competing at the Paralympics while worrying about their families at home.
“All my thoughts, heart and soul are with my family and with my children,” said Kononova Al Jazeera. “Emotionally, it’s very difficult to stay focused and focused on the race and the competition, so this has been the most difficult Paralympic Games for me.”
Some Ukrainian athletes have had to withdraw from competitions because of the aggression Russia has inflicted on their loved ones, Al Jazeera reported. (Paralympic organizers banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing after the invasion began.)
Liashenko withdrew from her cross-country race after her home in hard-hit Kharkiv was destroyed on Monday, according to team spokeswoman Nataliia Harach.
And 19-year-old Anastasiia Laletina withdrew from the middle-time seated biathlon race early Tuesday after learning that her father, a soldier in the Ukrainian army, had been captured by Russian forces and beat.
“She was very upset and could not participate in the race,” Harach said, adding that Laletina was resting and receiving support from the team doctor.
Ukraine has been a force at these Olympics
Instructors Oleksandr Mukshyn, Anatolii Kovalevskyi, Vitalii Lukianenko, guide Borys Babar, instructors Oleksandr Nikonovych and Dmytro Suiarko celebrate the victory of the blind men’s middle distance distance in the twin triathlon at the Winter Paralympics 2022 on Tuesday in China.
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Instructors Oleksandr Mukshyn, Anatolii Kovalevskyi, Vitalii Lukianenko, guide Borys Babar, instructors Oleksandr Nikonovych and Dmytro Suiarko celebrate the victory of the blind men’s middle distance distance in the twin triathlon at the Winter Paralympics 2022 on Tuesday in China.
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Tuesday’s podium sweeps are not Ukraine’s only notable victory in these Paralympics, which began last Friday and ended on Sunday.
In fact, it was the Ukraine-born Oksana Masters who won Team America’s first gold medal, in the women’s biathlon sprint. This is her 5th Paralympic gold medal and her 11th overall, including the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Athletes and cross-country skiers are born in Ukraine with birth defects attributed to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and was adopted by an American single mother after living in orphanages in Ukraine for nearly a decade. She wrote on social media posts about define as both Ukraine and USA and representing both countries on the podium.
“It is difficult to find my passion and my desire to compete at these Olympics in light of the war that my homeland Ukraine is suffering,” she said. wrote in a. “I feel selfish, helpless and guilty for being here. However, I have always been proud to be Ukrainian, feel very proud when I see the Ukrainian flag, and now more than ever, I am proud of myself.” proudest to say that I am Ukrainian.”
Masters says she’s giving away part of her bounty to No child is forgottenan effort by Global Giving and Bright Kids Charity to support children with disabilities in Ukraine.
Ukrainian athletes took home even more triathlon medals on Tuesday: Grygorii Vovchynskyi took silver in the men’s middle distance, while Taras Rad took bronze in the standings. average distance south.
Rad told reporters through an interpreter that he plans to return to Ukraine after the Olympics and will volunteer to help the army if the war continues.
“I always think about my family and friends when I’m at hotels … but now, talking about them, I tremble, I worry a lot about them,” he said.
Bringing athletes to Beijing from the start was ‘a miracle’
Gold medalist Iryna Bui of Team Ukraine celebrates with Valerii Sushkevych, president of the Ukrainian Paralympic committee, on Tuesday.
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Gold medalist Iryna Bui of Team Ukraine celebrates with Valerii Sushkevych, president of the Ukrainian Paralympic committee, on Tuesday.
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Valerii Sushkevych, Chairman of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee, said last week that the team’s arrival in Beijing was “a miracle”, saying that some narrowly escaped Russian bombs when they left the country.
Ukraine’s Olympic and Paralympic teams have history is strongand Sushkevych said to New York Times This week, the event is usually a time of celebration and camaraderie for athletes.
But that was not the case this time, he said.
“I ask athletes in the morning, ‘Have you slept yet?” I asked another, ‘Have you slept yet?’ They said, “No, no,” he said. “They have dull, sad faces. The mood is very bad. We are all thinking about our homeland.”
Sushkevych said to Time that he and his wife are now looking to get everyone out of China when the Olympics are over, saying they will likely move the 54-person delegation to an unspecified European country as some sort of facility. organisers – but there are still many questions.
“In how long?” he say. “Day? Week? Are we staying in the hotel, and how do we pay for that? We don’t have the money. We don’t have the answers yet.”
