With seven medals, including three gold on Saturday, and first place in the medal table of the Paralympic Games in Beijing, the Ukrainians were able to make their country shine despite the war and the Russian invasion in their country. More than 6,000 kilometers from the fighting and the bombardments, on the tracks of Zhangjiakou, the Ukrainian athletes shone and multiplied the messages of support and peace during the first day of the Games, from which Russians and Belarusians were banned.
A hat-trick on the sprint in biathlon
The Ukrainian team has recorded three biathlon titles, despite a grueling journey to reach China, which began with a bus trip to Europe. “The last week we spent in Italy, without any equipment. We couldn’t train,” Taras Ras, silver medalist in the seated sprint, told AFP, who heard from his family before his race.
This lack of preparation did not prevent a 100% yellow and blue podium during the sprint, in the visually impaired category, on which Vitalii Lukianenko, 43, climbed to the top step, ahead of Oleksandr Kazik and Dmytro Suiarko. “They are my brothers in sport and my brothers in life. We are very close to each other,” said Lukianenko, who made a point of dedicating his medal “to the guys who protect our cities,” urging his relatives in the city of Kharkiv to stay strong.
“These medals don’t matter”
For her part, Oksana Shyshkova, who won the women’s sprint in the visually impaired category, recalled that “the medals are of no importance, compared to what our relatives and people who have already suffered from the war are going through. . Crowned in the standing category, Grygorii Vovchynskyi, 33, also took advantage of his victory to send a message: “Ukraine is a big family. My medal, for my first race, is for peace in Ukraine, for people in Ukraine”.