Ukrainian ski acrobatics team wins debut silver at 2025 World Championships in Switzerland
Dmytro Kotovsky. Photo: AP / Jeff Swinger
At the 2025 World Championships in Engadin, Switzerland, the Ukrainian national ski acrobatics team won its debut silver medal in the mixed team competition's grand final.
Suspilne Sport reports this.
The publication notes that the ski acrobatics events started with the mixed team competitions, starting directly with the final. Seven national teams, including Ukraine, participated.
The "blue and yellow" were represented by three ski acrobats:
- Anhelina Brykina,
- the current bronze medalists of the discipline at the World Championships – Oleksandr Okipniuk and Dmytro Kotovsky.
How did the mixed team competitions take place?
In the final, teams competed to secure a spot in the top four, advancing to the grand final for the World Championships medals.
In the qualification, Anhelina Brykina came first for Ukraine. She fell and received only 60.16 points.
Oleksandr Okipniuk then executed the second jump, earning 110.86 points from the judges, which elevated Ukraine to fifth place.
The last was Dmytro Kotovsky, who received 115.05 points for his jump.
In total, Ukraine received 286.07 points for three attempts, thanks to which they finished in fourth place, qualifying for the grand final, beating Canada by 11.18 points.
The ski acrobats each had one more jump attempt in the grand final. Brykina scored 57.96 points, after which Okipniuk received 121.27 points, bringing Ukraine to third place.
In Ukraine's final attempt, Kotovsky chose the most challenging routine, performing the "Hurricane" trick. Dmytro earned 133.12 points, marking the highest score among all acrobats in the grand final.
In total, Ukraine completed the medal round with a score of 312.35 points, winning its debut "silver" in the discipline.
2025 World Championships. Mixed team tournament
- USA – 344.63 points
- Ukraine – 312.35
- Switzerland – 281.43
- Australia – 272.49
This marks Ukraine's first medal at the 2025 World Championships in freestyle and snowboarding. Previously, the best result for Ukraine was Kateryna Kotsar's ninth place in the big air qualification.
This silver marks Ukraine's first in mixed team competitions at the World Championship, surpassing the previous best of bronze in 2023.
As current world vice-champions, Ukrainians will compete in this discipline at the 2026 Olympic Games in Italy.
On March 29, the 2025 World Championships will host the qualifications for the individual ski acrobats competition. The next day, March 30, the tournament will conclude with the women's and men's finals.
It is worth adding that this is the country's fifth medal in history:
- Oleksandr Abramenko also won silver in the men's tournament in 2019.
- Olha Volkova (2011) and Anastasiia Novosad (2019) won bronze in the women's competition.
