The President awarded high state honors to the deflympians from Lviv region, thanks to whom Ukraine took the highest place in the team competition among all countries for the first time in history.
About 600 participants from 36 countries took part in the XX Winter Deaflympics in Erzurum. The strongest athletes were determined in alpine skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, curling, chess and futsal. Ukraine was represented by 36 athletes.
Eight representatives of Lviv region also competed under the blue and yellow flag. All of them returned home with medals:
– Yaroslav Gulyovaty became the champion in cross-country skiing (this is the first award in the history of Lviv region at the Deaflympics);
– Our double-mix curling team of Mykhailo Pleskanka and Kateryna Yakymets won gold in curling;
– Tetiana Hlyvka, Margarita Oprya and Kateryna Yakymets became champions in the team curling competition;
– Chess player Denys Kolb won a bronze medal in the team rapids game as part of the Ukraine-2 team;
– Oleksandr Hatz, Mykhailo Pleskanka and Roman Yefanov became bronze medalists in the team curling competition.
For these achievements, the President honored our countrymen with high state awards:
– The Order of Merit of the III degree – Yaroslav Gulyovaty and Mykhailo Pleskanka;
– The Order of Princess Olha, III class – Tetiana Hlyvka, Margarita Oprya and Kateryna Yakymets;
– Medal “For Labor and Victory” – Roman Yefanov, Oleksandr Hatsk and Denys Kolb.
We are proud of each and every one of them! Thank you!
As Roman Khimyak rightly noted, these results are more than just about sports. This is about the fact that the barrier-free environment, which is so much talked about today, was the first to appear in sports. And for many people with disabilities, sport has become a point of fulfillment and active life.
“We are working to ensure that the League of the Unconquered project we are developing in Lviv region provides more great sports opportunities for our soldiers with disabilities. We are also working to make more such opportunities available to civilians. Ukraine will be a country without barriers. We are already confidently moving towards this,” said Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the Lviv Regional Branch of the Ukrainian Association of Athletes with Disabilities.
As a reminder, the Deaflympics are the highest-level sporting events for people who are deaf and hard of hearing that take place every four years.