At the ongoing Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics, Ukraine has achieved outstanding results and has taken second spot in the medal tally.
The para-athletes’ courage and mental fortitude amid the current Russia-Ukraine conflict has earned respect from Chinese netizens who called for “sport without borders.”
“They must be under huge pressure at these Games as their mother country is suffering a serve conflict,” a sports commentator surnamed Luo, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“The war will definitely distract them and affect their performance, but they can still achieve such great results, which shows their ability in the events,” he added.
According to the official website of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics, Ukraine has won a total of 19 medals, including six gold medals, eight silver medals and five bronze medals as of Wednesday.
The Ukrainian para-athletes have dominated the podiums in the Para Biathlon event, with the men’s and women’s teams sweeping the middle-distance vision impaired and standing categories, respectively.
Iryna Bui won the women’s standing 10km race, coming in nearly 13 seconds ahead of her compatriot Oleksandra Kononova. Liudmyla Liashenko took bronze.
In the men’s middle-distance vision impaired biathlon, Vitaliy Lukyanenko came out on top by nearly 45 seconds as Ukrainian para biathletes finished in the top five places in the race. Anatolii Kovalevskyi and Dmytro Suiarko won the silver and bronze.
The bittersweet wins for the Ukrainian para-athletes have won the full respect of Chinese viewers who took to social media to praise their persistence and mental fortitude. Many sent wishes that peace will return in their country soon.
Luo said he saw the spirit of sport from the Ukrainian para-athletes who played hard and fought for the honor of their country at the Games.
The slogan “sport without borders” was advocated by the West, and has been widely accepted and highly praised by Chinese fans. However, Western countries have thrown the slogan away and bundled sport with politics.
“This shows their hypocritical face compared to the tolerance of the Chinese nation,” said Luo.
Ukrainian para-athletes dominated the podiums in men’s middle-distance vision impaired and standing categories.Photo:Sina Weibo
