On the square in front of the Opera House in Lviv, a wheelchair basketball competition took place as part of the national veterans’ UNBROKEN GAMES, with veterans and service personnel from various regions of Ukraine taking part.
The ceremonial opening tip-off was made by the Mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi. Two teams played on the court in front of the theatre, while numerous spectators watched the match.
This year’s UNBROKEN GAMES have brought together a record number of participants — around 600 veterans and service personnel. The competitions are being held at several locations across the city, including by the Opera House, at Strilnytsia and the Yunist stadium, and cover a range of adaptive sports.
The Mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, noted that the participation of so many veterans, including from Crimea and Donbas, shows that the UNBROKEN GAMES have become a tradition and will now be held annually.
The head of the Sports Office of Lviv City Council, Anton Nikulin, stressed that staging basketball matches outdoors in the city centre has an important social purpose — to show residents and visitors of Lviv the role of sport in the recovery and rehabilitation of veterans.
“Why are we in the centre and not in a sports hall? Because we want city residents and visitors to see how our heroes compete with one another, how they find new meaning in sport, and go through rehabilitation and social reintegration. This is extremely important right now,” said Anton Nikulin.
According to him, most requests from veterans to city services concern sport specifically, so for the city it is important to develop infrastructure and hold multi-sport events such as the UNBROKEN GAMES, which have already become landmark competitions and this year are the largest veterans’ games in Ukraine in terms of participation.
UNBROKEN GAMES are national multi-sport competitions for veterans and service personnel, held in Lviv within the UNBROKEN ecosystem. Their aim is to promote the physical recovery, psychological rehabilitation and social reintegration of defenders through sport.
Participants compete in several adaptive disciplines at different locations around the city, both in individual and team formats. The organisers have taken some of the events outdoors to make the games open to residents and visitors of Lviv.
This year, the UNBROKEN GAMES have welcomed not only military personnel, veterans and people with disabilities who sustained injuries or wounds as a result of the war, but for the first time also representatives of Ukraine’s Security and Defence Forces. International teams from Croatia, Denmark and the United Kingdom have also come to Lviv.