On March 12, on the fifth day of the Air Force and Marine Corps Trials 2024, 32-year-old veteran from Lviv Oleksandr Kataula, along with other members of the Ukrainian national team, won gold in team archery and silver in individual archery.
In 2022, Oleksandr fought in the Luhansk region. During the battles for Popasna, Kataula was seriously wounded and lost his left leg above the knee.
We previously reported that a soldier from Lviv region will take part in the US Air Force competition
The veteran found a way to recover, in particular, in adaptive sports, and now he is proving by his own example that the strength of the spirit can be stronger than circumstances.
As a reminder, the Air Force and Marine Corps Trials 2024 are taking place at Nellis Air Force Base, a U.S. Air Force military base in Las Vegas. On the fourth day of the competition, the Ukrainian national team won a gold medal in the shooting event. It was won by a 32-year-old Armed Forces serviceman from Dnipropetrovs’k region, Oleksandr Nedashkovsky.
On the third day of the competition, our team won 27 medals in swimming.
On the second day of the competition, 43-year-old veteran Serhiy Dubov from Mariupol won a gold medal in cycling.
On the first day of competition, the Ukrainian team won 6 medals in powerlifting.
In total, the Ukrainian team consists of 30 participants – veterans and military personnel – who compete in 11 adaptive sports:
– swimming
– cycling
– wheelchair basketball;
– sitting volleyball;
– wheelchair rugby;
– archery
– powerlifting;
– running
– shot put/discus throw
– rowing
– shooting.
The United States Air Force and Marine Corps Trials 2024 is a competition for veterans and military personnel of the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps, which is a qualifying stage for the Warrior Games, the largest American adaptive sports tournament for military personnel with injuries and traumas. This year, in addition to the Ukrainian national team, the Georgian team is also participating in the United States Air Force and Marine Corp Trials.
The United States Air Force and Marine Corp Trials 2024 in Ukraine is organized by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs in cooperation with the Ukrainian Veterans Fund and NGOs such as Come Back Alive, Stratcom Ukraine and Invictus Games: Team Ukraine.