Name: Victoria Marchuk
Age: 28
Education: Khortytsia National Education and Rehabilitation Center in Zaporizhia
Profession: Sportswoman, para taekwondo fighter
Did you know? Marchuk likes to embroider. She has even presented one of her works — a framed piece of embroidered art — to Chungwon Choue, the president of World Taekwondo Federation.
Victoria Marchuk was abandoned as a baby by her family because she had a serious birth defect — underdeveloped arms. Despite that, she has grown up to be a track athlete, a swimmer, and now one of the world’s best para taekwondo fighters.
Raised in an orphanage in Zaporizhia, the southeastern city of 750,000 people located 550 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, Marchuk has been a para taekwondist for six years, winning a world championship on average every year.
She won her first gold medal on the Caribbean island of Aruba in 2012, the first year she took up taekwondo. Later on, she won the same title in Portugal, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. In 2014, Marchuk received the title of Ukrainian Master of Sports.
There’s even a stand in the taekwondo museum in South Korean capital Seoul, the birthplace of taekwondo, dedicated to Marchuk. “They tell my personal story there,” she says. “I am so very proud.”
All these victories — representing Ukraine in elite global competitions — were made possible by dint of hard work and determination. She has two daily training sessions of at least two hours each. Sunday is her only day off.
“I long for victory,” she says. Meanwhile, her shoulder joint, affected by the birth defect, needs to be replaced by an artificial one, she says. But the operation, which would cost 50,000 euros, is too expensive for Marchuk. Unable to afford the operation, Marchuk just has to live with the pain.
“My health is not always on my side,” she says bitterly.
The Ukrainian government has never financed any of her trips abroad. Her salary as a sports professional, meanwhile, is roughly $200 a month.
Marchenko was given a room in a dormitory with a shared kitchen and bathroom, but she couldn’t live there because of her disability. Now she lives at a friend’s place, far from her training stadium.
Para taekwondo was confirmed as a sport in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games in January 2017, and this may help improve the situation, according to Marchuk. The government has now promised to invest more in this sport, and will at least finance her trips abroad to compete, along with the trips of other Ukrainian para taekwondists.
Notwithstanding the pain and financial troubles, Marchuk is fully engaged in preparations for the Olympics, which she has always dreamed of taking part in.
“I always dreamed of becoming an athlete. The doctors didn’t always allow me to be one,” she says. “Now my greatest ambition is to take part in the Paralympics, and I’m doing my best to do so.”
