Paralympics‌ ‌in‌ ‌Tokyo: highlights ‌and Ukrainian victories ‌ ‌

During the past years that the national team of Ukraine participates in the Paralympic Games, the number of awards received by Ukrainians has only increased every year. Although this year the total number of awards won by the Ukrainian national team decreased, fans weren't disappointed. The Ukrainian Paralympians set 6 records, won medals in ten sports, and took sixth place in the total number of medals, showing their second-best result during their performances at the Paralympics.

• The motto of the national Paralympic team of Ukraine was: "Your support is our victory!"
• And the Paralympics itself was held under the slogan, "United by emotion."

Well, there were a lot of victories and emotions. RUBRYKA tells about the highlights of our athletes' participation at Tokyo 2020.

Symbolic beginning

Olympic swimming champions Viktor Smirnov and Yelizaveta Mereshko became the standard-bearers from Ukraine at the opening ceremony. The brilliant and inspiring show for Ukraine's national Paralympic team became also very symbolic: the XVI Summer Paralympic Games started on the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence and the 25th anniversary of the Ukrainians winning the first Paralympic gold medal.

The honorary mission of the flag bearer became a good sign for Yelizaveta Mereshko: on the first day of the competition, the swimmer brought Ukraine the first gold award. The experienced 29-year-old athlete snatched victory from the American Elizabeth Marx in a furious fight. It's noteworthy that during the competition in almost every swim, Yelizaveta won a medal. Thanks to the athlete, two "gold", two "silver" and one "bronze" got into Ukraine's treasury. The Ukrainian "goldfish" has also world Paralympic records on her account.

"Lucky" pool

The Tokyo Paralympic Pool turned out to be lucky for Ukrainian swimmers. Eight Ukrainian athletes won gold medals in swimming at the Tokyo Games. Incredible debutant, 21-year-old Andrii Trusov won seven medals, including two gold. Swimmer Denys Ostapchenko also became a full cavalier of the Tokyo Paralympics. In total, our swimmers won as many as 43 awards for Ukraine during the entire Paralympics.

King of the Paralympics 

For the first time in the history of the Paralympics, the Games' most titled athlete was Ukrainian swimmer Maksym Krypak, who won 7 awards at these competitions: 5 gold, one silver, and one bronze medal. It's a record number for this Paralympics not only in swimming but among all sports. In addition, in the 100-meter freestyle (class – S10), Maksym Krypak broke the world record, which was held for 11 years. In total, the Ukrainian record holder has 15 Paralympic medals, 10 of which are gold.

With Ukraine in the heart

Ukrainian runner Ihor Tsvietov won two silver medals at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. These medals became special for Ukraine because of the principled, patriotic position of our runner. During the award ceremony, athletes from the RCC (Russians this acronym) offered Tsvietov to take a joint photo twice, to which he refused, withdrawing from them. On the second attempt, masks didn't help even RCC runners. As a result, they took photos without a Ukrainian. Tsvietov explained his behavior by posting on his Facebook page: "Some see this as disrespect for competitors. And some see respect for Ukraine. To each their own. With Ukraine in the heart," Tsvietov wrote.

Golden club

Zoia Ovsii brought Ukraine the first "gold" in the history of club throw. Ukrainian para-athletes have never been on the first step of the pedestal in this discipline. At these Games, Ovsii also won a bronze medal in the discus throw, and at the last Paralympics-2016 in Rio, Ovsii was one step closer to the title, but eventually won the "silver." This time Zoia managed to win her first Paralympic "gold" in her career and the first in Ukraine's history. It's the fourth medal of the athlete at the Games and the third in club throw in Ukraine's history.

On swords

Also the first in Ukraine's history was a Paralympic medal in team fencing; the women's sword fencing team, consisting of Yevhenia Breus, Natalia Mandryk, and Olena Fedota, won a silver medal in the team championship. Neither men nor women won the competition in any type of weapons before the Tokyo Games.

17-year-old champion

Swimmer Mykhailo Serbin became the youngest Paralympic champion. At the age of 17, Mykhailo surprised the entire world. The Ukrainian won the 100-meter backstroke in the S11 class. Mykhailo also finished second in the 200-meter complex.

Games' main favorite

Oksana Zubkovska, one of the biggest stars of the Ukrainian Paralympic movement, became the Paralympic champion for the fourth time. She competes in the long jump in the T12 class (for the visually impaired) and has won three previous Paralympics (Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016). Oksana came to Tokyo as the current champion and main favorite. After the first two rounds of jumps, the Ukrainian was third, and with her third jump, she showed the championship result for these games, an attempt at 5.54 meters! Oksana failed to reach the world record she set in 2012 in London, 6.60, but in Tokyo, she still managed to jump the nearest competitor by as much as 16 centimeters.

The star of Ukrainian powerlifting

Fate is changeable. Another legend of the Ukrainian Paralympic movement was unlucky at the 16th Summer Paralympic Games. The first Paralympic powerlifting champion in Ukraine, Lidia Soloviova, announced the end of her sports career in Tokyo. The athlete made her debut at the Paralympics in Sydney-2000 and immediately won the "silver." Since then, Lidia has performed at all subsequent Games, where she constantly won medals. Her achievements are five out of nine Ukrainian medals in history in powerlifting at the Paralympics. However, in Tokyo 2020, Lidia broke the medal series. She competed in the weight up to 50 kg and finished fourth. In the last attempt, Lidia could not lift 108 kg and lost one kilogram to "bronze." "I apologize to everyone whom I came short of, and who I let down. Fourth place is the worst, a wooden medal. I'm leaving with shame," said the legendary athlete with tears in her eyes. This bitter farewell caused a flurry of emotions among her fans. The athlete was supported by many people who don't consider the fourth place a defeat. Of course, when only one kilogram separates you from a medal, it's very unfortunate, but in the hearts of fans, Lidia Soloviova will forever remain a real symbol of Ukrainian powerlifting.

No defeat

There were no equals in table tennis to our Maryna Lytovchenko. In Tokyo, Maryna hosted one of the most dominant tournaments among all table tennis champions. The Ukrainian didn't lose a single game on the way to the "gold," winning four matches with a score of 3:0. First, she defeated two rivals in the group, then she defeated her rival from RCC in the semifinals, and in the final in 15 minutes (!), she dealt with another RCC tennis player, Malyak Aliyeva. The champion's medal in Tokyo is the second personal Paralympic award and the first gold medal in Lytovchenko's career. Before that, Maryna was third in Rio in 2016.

European record

With a European record, athlete Vladyslav Zahrebelnyi won the "gold" of the Paralympics in the long jump. His result is 6.59 m.

Rivals don't stand a chance

Roman Polianskyi became the first two-time Paralympic champion in the history of Ukrainian academic rowing. The 34-year-old rower, who comes from the Donetsk region and represents Odesa, didn't leave any chances to his rivals in the final; the advantage at the finish was more than 12 seconds!

New world record

21-year-old Anastasia Moskalenko managed to put the shot to an incredible 7 meters and 61 centimeters. This result brought our athlete a confident victory and the highest step on the pedestal, and the world, a new world record!

Rules are rules

Athlete Maksym Koval also won the "gold" of the 2020 Paralympics in the shot put for Ukraine. Maksym's result, 17.34 m, also became a world record. The victory's story, not through the fault of our athlete, became scandalous. The judges awarded Maksym the victory after the disqualification of the representative of Malaysia Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli, who was first given first place. But later the result of the Malaysian was annulled because he and two other athletes broke the rules, being late to the waiting room before the competition. The situation with Zolkefli outraged Malaysian fans, and they flooded Ukrainian social media pages with angry comments. It even came to football goalkeeper Maksym Koval, the athlete's namesake. The final verdict in this matter was expressed by the representative of the International Paralympic Committee Craig Spence. "Rules are rules. It's not the fault of Ukrainians that the Malaysian was late. We allowed those who broke the rules to compete, and at this time we studied the facts and determined that they had no good reason to be late. Therefore, the Malaysian appeal was rejected," he said. The official was "disappointed" by the behavior of Malaysian fans and called it "offensive and ridiculous."

Painted canoe and beard strength

Ukrainian kayaker Serhii Yemelianov won the Tokyo gold medal in the 200-meter distance, only one-tenth of a second ahead of Leonid Krylov, the RCC representative. Yemelianov's medal became the second in a row at the Paralympic Games. In Rio de Janeiro, he also won "gold" in this distance. And he approached the Games in Tokyo in the status of the current 3-time world champion. In the 2020 Paralympic Races, his lucky charms were a beard and a canoe painted with sakura flowers. Serhii doesn't shave his famous beard until the end of the competition. He says, this helps him to win: "It's my strength. I had a beard for a year. In Tokyo, I shaved, put it in a bag, and took it with me. And now I'll have a new beard, a new force. I will grow a beard for the Paralympic Games," he said in 2019 after the Paralympic races. And, as we see, the charming beard didn't disappoint its owner at the main competitions.

There are so many achievements of Ukrainian Paralympians that it's simply impossible to tell about everything in one review. But we know for sure that every medal for the Ukrainian Paralympic team is priceless. And as the winner of the Tokyo 2020 silver award, Ukrainian runner Liudmyla Danylina, emotionally said in an interview, it's not just metal with a precious coating: "For me, it's life. And if I had to, I would run again for it. Because it's not metal, it's every athlete's life."

The prize fund for prize places was 125 thousand dollars for the first place; 80,000 for the second, and 55,000 for the third. The state will pay these awards in hryvnia equivalent. Congratulations to all our winners and we wish them further sporting success!