BEIJING — With heavy hearts and unfathomable worries, athletes from the Ukraine national Paralympic team arrived in China two weeks ago to win medals and medals. draw attention to the situation of their country thanks to his athletic achievements.
They did both.
Isolated from loved ones, many of whom sheltered in basements and garages under the bombardment of Russian guns, Ukrainian athletes became the theme of a four-year event, based in part on their perseverance.
Ukraine won 28 medals, including 10 golds, in the first eight days of the event (the second most of any nation), and their courage and determination in the face of daunting emotional and physical conditions earned them widespread sympathy and respect.
“We can’t even imagine what they’ve been through,” said American cross-country skier Jake Adicoff, who is one of the few to win a gold medal while competing against Ukrainian skiers. “We all support them”
Even before the Games opened, Ukraine was the focus of the event as the International Paralympic Committee. banned all Russian athletes on their government’s invasion of Ukraine. The Belarusian delegation was also banned because this country supported the invasion.
At a press conference the next day, Valerii SushkevychThe head of the Ukrainian Paralympic delegation thanked the IPC and informed the world that the Ukrainian athletes will stay in China and serve their country by competing in the Games, no matter how difficult.
“Our soldiers are fighting in Ukraine” said. “As the Paralympic team, we do our battles in Beijing.” He added that if the team chooses not to come to Beijing to compete, it would be like a “surrender.”
Ukraine has a proud track record of success at the Paralympics, especially the Winter Games, where it dominates two of the sports it enters – biathlon and cross-country skiing.
Day after day, athletes competed and trained. At night, they spent time on their phones connecting with loved ones. under attack in Ukraine. Most of the athletes said they couldn’t sleep because of anxiety and fear, and when they came to the race, mental tension could be seen in their faces and calm demeanor.
Still, on the first day of the competition, the Ukrainians set the course, winning three gold medals in biathlon and a total of seven medals, including a sweep of the visually impaired men’s sprint. They barely celebrated.
The medal ceremonies turned into both gloomy and exhilarating moments, with both athletes and observers succumbing to emotion and admiration. It was hard to imagine what skiers like silver medalist Oksana Shyshkova were thinking or focusing on the race as they took their medals under Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag.
“We all have families there,” Shyshkova said. “We just don’t know what to do. We’re really scared.”
Some, like Vitalii Lukianenko from Kharkiv, a city under recent attack, coped with challenging conditions by focusing on success. According to the head of the delegation, Sushkevych, while preparing for the competition, his family went underground and went without sleep for days without worry.
Sushkevych said Lukianenko was so worn out physically and emotionally that he didn’t think Sushkevych should compete.
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However, Lukianenko took the starting line and won the gold medal, swearing that he would not feel any pain.
“If you knew the situation,” said Sushkevych, “it was a miracle.”
For others, fear and sleepless nights wreaked havoc on snowy racetracks and their times were slower than usual. Yuliia Batenkova-Bauman, whose wife and daughter are still in Kiev, spoke to numerous journalists from various countries and told her story over and over in tears, hoping she could provide international support to Ukraine. She spoke of the nightmares and said that the constant worry was “killing” her.
“I can’t show my best results here because I can’t sleep at night,” she said. “I always think of my family.”
Sushkevych, who used a wheelchair at the beginning of the first week, drew attention to the situation of disabled people trapped in buildings in Ukraine. “Wheelchairs cannot escape the bombs,” he said. “Blind people can’t escape bombs.”
In the second week, as the Ukrainian athletes continued to pile up the medals, they held an unusual peace vigil in the athletes’ village and unfurled a banner calling for peace.
Two days ago, Anastasiia Laletina had to withdraw from the biathlon event. The Ukrainian Paralympic committee announced that his 19-year-old father, who was a soldier in the Ukrainian army, was captured by Russian troops.
However, he returned to the competition on Friday with the support of his teammates.
“We are emotionally and physically tired from this situation,” said Shyshkova, who won two gold and a silver medal. But we are here to represent our country, to glorify our country, to tell the world that Ukraine exists and we exist, ”she said.