Boston Marathon
Twelve-year-old Ukrainian girl with prostheses starts marathon
12-year-old Ukrainian Jana Stepanenko is preparing for the 2024 Boston Marathon with prosthetics. photo
© —/Ukrinform/dpa
In the spring of 2022, Jana Stepanenko lost her legs as a result of a Russian missile attack. Now the twelve-year-old Ukrainian wants to run part of the traditional Boston Marathon.
At a charity event as part of this year’s In the Boston Marathon, twelve-year-old Ukrainian Jana Stepanenko covered a five-kilometer route on prostheses.
“Nothing is impossible,” wrote the mayor of her hometown Lviv, Andriy Sadowyj, on Telegram. During this run, the girl collected money for running prostheses for a Ukrainian soldier who was also physically disabled. In the actual marathon on Monday, April 15th, Stepanenko wants to run at least one kilometer.
The now 12-year-old lost both legs in a Russian attack on Kramatorsk two years ago. On April 8, 2022, more than 50 people were killed and over 110 others were injured in the shelling of the train station, where many people were waiting to be evacuated. Stepanenko later received her prosthetics in the United States. She now lives with her mother, who was also injured in the attack, and her brother in Lviv, western Ukraine.
Ukraine has been fending off a Russian invasion for more than two years. As a result of the hostilities, several hundred thousand people were killed. Tens of thousands of injured people had their arms or legs amputated.