Ukrainian athletes won a total of 98 medals, including 24 gold medals, at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, placing sixth in gold medal rank and fifth in total medal rank.
This is the second-best result Ukraine has ever gotten at the Paralympics.
“For a person with a disability, winning in sports means winning in life,” Valery Sushkevych, president of the National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine told news outlet Hromadske in Boryspil airport, after the athletes’ arrived back home on Sept. 5.
Ukrainian athletes won 98 medals, 47 of which were silver, and 37 – bronze. They competed in 15 sports, in 10 of which they were able to win awards.
The biggest number of medals Ukraine earned in swimming – 43 medals, 14 of which were gold.
In athletics – Ukraine’s second highest ranked sport – the athletes got six gold medals, fifteen silver, and three bronze.
Ukrainian Paralympic swimmer Maksym Kripak became the most awarded athlete of this year’s Paralympic Games, winning five gold medals, one silver, and one bronze.
Due to his successes in Tokyo, Kripak broke the Ukrainian record for the number of titles at the Paralympics and became the most successful Paralympian in the history of the national team.
At the age of 26, Kripak now has 15 Paralympic medals, 10 of which are gold.
The four participants that won more medals than Ukraine are China (207), Great Britain (124), Russian Paralympic Committee (118), and the United States (104).
In gold medal rank, Ukraine followed China (96), Great Britain (41), United States (37), Russian Paralympic Committee (36), and the Netherlands (25).