The 10th Paralympic Winter Games ended in Vancouver on March 21, with the Ukrainian team having shown a better performance than its Olympic counterpart, winning five gold, eight silver, and six bronze medals, placing third in the team standing and fifth by the number of gold medals. There were a total of 64 sets of medals in six events: Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice sledge hockey, and wheelchair curling. The German team was the leader with 13 gold medals, followed by Russia (12).
The Ukrainian team won most medals in cross-country skiing and biathlon, starring Yurii Kostiuk (Lutsk), Hryhorii Vovchynsky (Cherkasy oblast), Vitalii Lukianenko (Sumy), Olena Yurkovska and Oleksandra Kononova (both from Kyiv oblast), and Yulia Batenkova-Bauman (Volyn).
Our team fought as hard on the last day of the Games, with Oleksandra Kononova winning the team’s fifth gold medal in the cross-country skiing event (it was her third gold Paralympic medal). Another medal went to Olena Yurkovska who placed second in the skiing finals.
That same day an unpleasant event took place in Ukraine: the media studio of the National Paralympic Committee was broken in and robbed. “The robbers took the servers with all data, photos and videos of the national Paralympic and Deaflympic movements, along with the records and tapes of our celebrated handicapped athletes. They also took special video-editing and making equipment, computers, photo and video cameras,” said Natalia Harach.
The National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine has requested the Interior Ministry’s new leadership that the perpetrators be found and stolen property returned.
