After an unprecedented year-long delay, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will finally kick off on July 23, the day some Ukrainian athletes have been awaiting for years to try to leave their mark in the world’s sports history.
The games will take place in the Japanese capital through Aug. 8. The Paralympic Games will run between Aug. 24-Sept 5.
This time, Ukraine is represented by 158 athletes who will compete in 25 sports or 30 disciplines, according to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.
Even though the event has yet to start officially, it has already made history: It is the first Olympics postponed by a whole year. Previously, the Olympics have only been canceled during the world wars.
Although the games are taking place in the summer of 2021, they will still be referred to as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as the organizers decided to keep all of the 2020 brandings including souvenirs, signage, television graphics, apparel and even medals for winning athletes.
Several new sports will also be introduced at these Olympics including surfing, freestyle BMX, skateboarding, sport climbing and karate. Baseball and softball will return to the program after a break.
There will be almost no spectators at the contests due to the COVID-19 emergency in Tokyo.
Luckily, there are options to watch the global athletic event online: Ukrainian Suspilne Sport online media and UA:Pershyi television channel will broadcast the event for free. The opening ceremony will start at 2 p.m. Kyiv time on July 23. The schedule of all sports events and the upcoming results can be found here.
Set to win
Ukraine won just 11 medals — two gold, five silver and four bronze — at the previous Summer Olympics in Brazil in 2016, its worst results since its first Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996. But the country has high hopes for better results this time.
In an interview with the television channel, Ukraine’s Youth and Sports Minister Vadym Huttsait said that the country expects to win 13-15 medals at the 2020 Olympics.
According to the BBC Ukraine news site, Ukraine expects its best results in judo, bullseye shooting, athletics, fencing, diving, rowing, boxing, gymnastics and synchronized swimming.
Among those having good chances to succeed are Ukraine’s recognized athletic stars such as the 2004 Olympic pistol shooting champion Olena Kostevych.
Ukrainian judoka Daria Bilodid, 20, is also expected to be a star at the Olympics. In 2019, Bilodid became the youngest judoka to win back-to-back world championships, defending her title in Tokyo against Japan’s Funa Tonaki. Now the two-time judo world champion, Bilodid has already set her sights on Olympic gold.
Other possible winners are Ukraine’s top female tennis player Elina Svitolina, the winner of 15 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) singles titles, and the four-time world sabre fencing champion Olha Kharlan. Zhan Beleniuk, the well-known Greco-Roman wrestler and Ukrainian lawmaker within the ruling Servant of the People party, is also aiming high. Beleniuk won a silver medal in the up to 85 kilograms category of Greco-Roman Wrestling at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Khyzhniak, the winner of the 2017 World Championships and European Championships as well as the 2019 European Games, may also win a medal in Tokyo, along with promising diver Oleksiy Sereda, the Ukrainian Olympic team’s youngest member.
On the athletics team, Ukraine expects the best results from high jumpers Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Yuliya Levchenko and Iryna Herashchenko, as well as the long jumper Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, Novoye Vremya magazine reported.
“For us, Ukrainian Olympians are already superheroes, each in their own sport,” the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and the Olympic Team’s said in a Facebook post.
