Ukraine wins additional eight medals
Ukraine’s Liudmyla Luzan captured a bronze medal in the women’s C-1 200-meter (canoe sprint) with a time of 47.034 seconds, barely being edged out by second-place finisher Laurence Vincent-Lapointe of Canada (46.786 seconds). Luzan finished first in her semifinal heat with a time of 47.339 seconds. The 24-year-old Ivano-Frankivsk native is the 2021 European champion in the C-1 500-meter and C-2 500-meter events.
Anzhelika Terliuga (women’s 55 kg) qualified for the Olympic Games by finishing among the top four karateka at the end of the combined World Karate Federation Rankings. Terliuga proved worthy of her qualification by defeating opponents from Egypt, Japan and Chinese Taipei, while drawing with challengers from Kazakhstan and Austria. In the final she lost to Bulgarian Ivet Goranova, 1-5, winning Ukraine’s second silver medal of the Tokyo Games.
Middleweight boxing silver medalist Oleksandr Khyzhniak.
Stanislav Horuna won a bronze medal in karate’s men’s 75 kg kumite on August 6. The discipline of kumite is grappling with two athletes facing one another on a mat, aiming to land blows to the head, face, neck, chest, side or back. The 32-year-old Lviv native also practices snowboarding, skydiving, rope jumping and rafting. The women’s artistic swimming team won a bronze medal in team competition. The octet comprised Maryna Aleksiiva, Vladyslava Aleksiiva, Marta Fedina, Kateryna Reznik, Anastasiya Savchuk, Alina Shynkarenko, Kseniya Sydorenko and Yelyzaveta Yakhno. The Ukrainian team was 5.7961 points behind the gold medal winning Russians.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh won bronze in the women’s high jump on August 7. She cleared two meters in her final attempt. The gold medal winning height was 2.04 meters and the silver was earned with a height of 2.02 meters. The canoeing duo of Luzan and Anastasiia Chetverikova won a silver medal in women’s C-2 500-meter. It was the second Olympic medal for Luzan. The Ukrainians lost out on gold to China by a scant two seconds. The winner of boxing’s middleweight (69 kg to 75 kg) silver medal was Ukrainian Oleksandr Khyzhniak. Khyzhniak was stopped by a third-round knockdown by gold medalist Hebert Soura from Brazil. The 27-year-old Poltava native won Best Boxer at the 2017 World Championships. The final day of competition (August 8) witnessed cyclist Olena Starikova win a silver medal in the women’s individual sprint. The 25-year-old Kharkiv native beat out 29 other cyclists from 18 nations for second-place honors. This was Ukraine’s sixth silver medal and 19th overall medal at these Summer Games.
Canoeing doubles silver medalist and flag bearer for Ukraine Liudmyla Luzan.
More noteworthy performances
In athletics (track and field), Anna Ryzhykova placed fifth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.48 seconds. Her cohort, Viktoriya Tkachuk, was right behind her in this event, taking sixth overall with a time of 53.79 seconds. Mykhaylo Kokhan’s hammer throws netted him a fourth-place finish with a distance of 80.39 meters, just missing out on a bronze medal. Two Ukrainian female athletes ended up fifth in their field sports: Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk in the long jump (6.88 meters) and Maryna Kylypko in the pole vault (4.50 meters). In cycling’s women’s keirin (motor-paced track cycling), Olena Starikova was fourth (first in the semifinals) and Lyubov Basova sixth. The foursome of Bohdan Nikishyn, Ihor Reizlin, Roman Svichkar and Anatoliy Herey earned sixth overall in men’s team épée fencing. Men’s artistic gymnastics saw Ukrainian Petro Pakhnyuk place seventh in the parallel bars competition. Two shooters finished fourth in their events, Pavlo Korostylov in men’s 10-meter air pistol and Olena Kostevych in women’s 10-meter air pistol. Serhiy Kulish was eighth in the men’s 50-meter rifle three-positions.
In wrestling, Lenur Temirov (60 kg) was fifth in Greco-Roman and Tetyana Kit (57 kg) was 10th in women’s freestyle.
Bronze medal winning high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh.
A pair of Ukrainian women finished with top-10 performances in high jump: Iryna Herashchenko (fourth) and Yuliya Levchenko (eighth), Maryna Kylypko was fifth in pole vault (4.50 meters). The foursome of Mariia Kichasova-Skoryk, Liudmyla Kuklinovska, Anastasiia Todorova and Mariya Povkh placed 10th overall in canoeing’s K-4 500-meter racing. Young Oleksiy Sereda, age 15, was sixth in men’s 10-meter platform diving and Kamila Konotop (55 kg) ended up fifth in women’s weightlifting. In rhythmic gymnastics, individual competitors Khrystyna Pohranychna finished ninth with a total score of 95.100 points and Viktoriia Onopriienko 10th with a score of 93.500 points. The team of Mariola Bodnarchuk, Daryna Duda, Yeva Meleshchuk, Anastasiya Voznyak and Mariia Vysochanska ranked seventh overall with 77.600 points.
Ukraine exceeds expectations
In the Olympics preview article on these very pages, it was written that Ukraine’s performances in previous Summer Olympic Games have been on a downward trend. In Rio (2016), Ukraine won 11 medals (two gold) with 203 Olympians. It was thought hopes of reversing the downward trend would be challenging in Tokyo with Ukraine sending only 155 athletes to compete in some 20 sports. The COVID-19 pandemic obviously played a part in so many aspects of the planning and training stages for each participating nation, not to mention the health and safety protocols being followed for the past 16-plus months.
Team Ukraine exceeded expectations in Tokyo with their 19 total medals, including a lone gold, six silver and 12 bronze medals. This was good for an overall ranking of 16th out of 111 nations that medaled. Their result put them ahead of Spain, Switzerland and Sweden, to name a few major European sports programs.
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Cycling silver medalist Oksana Starikova.
Zhan Beleniuk with his gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling and record-setter double medalist Mykhailo Romanchuk were the Ukrainian heroes. Wrestling was the most successful Ukrainian sport (four medals, including a gold, a silver and two bronze), followed by swimming, karate and canoeing (each with a silver and bronze), and artistic swimming (two bronze).
Paralympics up next: Unlike Ukraine’s regular Olympic team, Ukraine’s Paralympics contingent is a powerhouse. In 2016 Ukraine was third among all nations with 41 gold and a total of 117 medals. This topped the results from 2012, which were 32 gold and 84 total medals. In 2012 and 2008, Ukraine placed fourth among all countries competing. Please stay tuned for our Paralympics preview and a special feature on Paralympian Oksana Masters.
Tokyo tidbit: Two-time medalist, Ukrainian sprint canoer Luzan had the honor of being Ukraine’s flag bearer during the closing ceremonies of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.
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Team Ukraine celebrates its performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics during the closing ceremonies.