Name: Kateryna Istomina
Age: 22
Education: College of Economics and Law at the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management
Profession: Paralympic swimmer
Did you know? Kateryna Istomina has earned more than 80 medals, in both Ukrainian championships and international competitions.
Kateryna Istomina thought there had been a mistake when she checked the results board after the women’s S8 100-meter relay butterfly swimming final at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics. The 22-year-old swimmer couldn’t believe she had achieved her dream.
Istomina had just won her first gold, one of the 41 gold medals the Ukrainian Paralympic team earned in Rio. She burst into tears after the relay race.
Istomina’s coach and boyfriend – another Paralympic swimmer, Yaroslav Denysenko – were the first to congratulate her, while her best friends cheered for her from the stands.
Istomina started swimming when she was a little girl, as she had lesions in her musculoskeletal system: her left arm does not function well. The butterfly was her favorite stroke. She made good progress and qualified for the national team when she was nearly 18.
She went to her first Paralympics in London in 2012. Istomina recalls it as a “memorable one,” because it was her debut and she earned a silver medal. However, her experiences in Rio de Janeiro topped that event.
“My dream came true, because I became a champion and could sing Ukraine’s anthem when (they) raised our flag,” Istomina says, adding that there were many such touching moments during and after the Paralympics. She was moved to tears when she saw that dozens of her relatives and friends showed up at the airport to greet the returning Paralympics team.
Despite the tough economic conditions in Ukraine and Russia’s war, the team achieved its best result. It placed third in overall medal rankings after China and the United Kingdom, with a total of 117 medals.
Ukraine’s Paralympians used to train in the Crimean city of Yevpatoria, before the peninsula was taken over by Russia in March 2014. Now Istomina mostly trains in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
What motivates the young swimmer most is curiosity about her own potential and what she could achieve next. “I always look up to my competitors and my boyfriend,” she says. Coordination and understanding of her coach helps her to find balance between high results and health conditions.
“My coach always helps me to prepare before a race,” Istomina explains. “She knows when to joke or comfort me. But most of all I think about the result I want to achieve.”
Istomina has at least two training sessions per day, early in the morning and in the afternoon. She only has time to grab a snack between them, she says. She treasures time with her family and spends every free moment with them. She’s already dreaming about the next Paralympics in Tokyo in 2020, but is right now enjoying a break before she returns to her daily training routine.
