Ukraine won its first gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 9, as swimmer Yevgeniy Bogodaiko won the 100 meters backstroke final.
Bogodaiko’s
winning time of 1:10.55 was 0.23 seconds ahead of current world and Paralympic
record holder Jonathon Fox of Great Britain.
The win for
Bogodaiko takes Ukraine’s current medal tally to one gold, one silver and seven
bronze. But with the 22-year-old swimmer
set to compete in five more distance events and three relays, those numbers look
likely to grow. Bogodaiko’s achievement is in line with Ukraine’s traditionally
strong showing in Paralympic swimming events.
His success
also suggests Ukraine’s Paralympians are on course to beat the results of their
Olympic counterparts, who managed to win a combined total of 11 medals. The
Ukrainian Olympic team’s best showings came in the form of gold in the parallel
bars and canoe sprint, with five silver and four bronze medals completing the medals
haul.
One other notable
performance by a member of Ukraine’s Olympic team came from Zhan Beleniuk, a
wrestler who this year made his Olympic debut. The 25-year-old, who is of mixed
Ukrainian-Rwandan parentage, had hoped to become Ukraine’s first gold medal
winner of African descent. But his progress was halted in the final of the
Greco-Roman 85 kilogram event by Russia’s Davit Chakvetadze. Beleniuk, who has
in the past spoken out about the poor funding available in Ukraine for
wrestling, is believed to be considering offers from other countries to compete
under a different flag.
Ukraine’s Paralympians,
in contrast, are showing no sign of defecting.
The country’s seven-a-side
football team, currently ranked as the best in the world, are in particularly
buoyant mood. They are looking to regain the title they last won in Athens in
2004 and in Beijing in 2008. But to do so, they will have to overcome a tough
challenge from home nation Brazil. Nevertheless, Ukraine’s squad should be
feeling confident of success, having already beaten the Brazilian side 2-0 in
the final of a warm-up tournament in Spain.
Apart from
football, the coming days in Rio will be dominated by table tennis, swimming and
athletics. Ukraine will be looking to make progress in all those events, in the
hope of moving up a medal table, which is currently led by China, Great
Britain and Uzbekistan.
The games continue until Sept. 18, meaning there is
still time for Ukraine to work on improving on the fifth place it managed at
the last Paralympic Games in London.
Ukraine is
currently in ninth place on the medals table, one behind Germany and one ahead
of Australia.
