Ukrainian winter sports championship for athletes with locomotive disabilities and the visually impaired will last until February 1 at the Yavoriv Western Rehabilitation and Sports Center of the National Sports Committee for Disabled People in Ukraine (NSCDPU) in Lviv region. According to the committee, a unique feature of this championship is the record number of participants which represent the record number of Ukrainian regions. The 11 represented regions are Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, and Kyiv City.
The championship’s list of participants looks quite impressive, too, as it includes the world famous athlete, Hero of Ukraine Olena Yurlovska who is a multiple champion and medal winner at three winter Paralympics, and the world’s best disabled athlete of 2006. Among the participants are also 13 more Paralympians, including six champions and medal winners at winter Paralympics, four honored masters of sports of Ukraine, seven masters of sports of Ukraine (international class), and four masters of sports of Ukraine. The event will feature the full national Paralympic winter sports team of Ukraine that defends the honor of our country at all international winter sports competitions, that is, European and world championships, world cups, and winter Paralympics.
The Western Rehabilitation and Sports Center is hosting the national championship for the first time and, according to the NSCDPU, is a fully EU-compliant facility.
“This center is fully accessible for all people with disabilities. It is equipped to provide accommodation and training opportunities for Olympians, Paralympians, and visually impaired athletes alike,” The Day was told by the NSCDPU’s press secretary Natalia Harach. “The center has been established after our Paralympians made a great showing at the Turin Games. We won the second largest number of medals overall and came third in the number of gold medals then. The entire world was moved by our Paralympians’ performance then, as Yurlovska became the best athlete of the games. Our disabled skiers had no suitably equipped facilities at the time, but we have accepted the first phase block of the center already in January 2010, while certified ski trail and ski rope-way became the major achievements of 2011. We built a ski slope in 2011, too, and are building a stadium for biathlon competitions now. We are already allowed to host international sports competitions. It is appropriate to add that the entire area of the Western Rehabilitation and Sports Center is fully compliant with international standards of barrier-free architecture, as defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”
