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A ‘miracle’ in Beijing: Ukraine unbowed at Winter Paralympics

Leading up to the Winter Paralympics opening ceremony there were doubts Ukraine’s team of 20 athletes would reach China and the prospect that even if they made it they could be sharing podiums with Russian athletes even as Russian tanks rolled towards Kyiv.

The International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) late U-turn to ban Russia avoided that scenario and after a fraught four-day journey and an emotional entrance into the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing the Ukraine team has gone on to all but ensure they will finish second in the medal table, the highest position since they started competing as an independent country in 1996.

Before there was any sporting action, the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee (UPC) president, Valeriy Sushkevych, told reporters it was a “miracle” they were there. “Not coming here would have been taking the easy option. Our presence at the Paralympics is a sign that Ukraine is and will remain a country.”

Once the action began, the medals in biathlon and cross-country kept on coming. Going into the final day of the Games, Ukraine had amassed 10 gold, 10 silver and eight bronze in the two sports, their highest haul. With the medals came the heartfelt words.

“I tried thinking about the competition, but today it’s difficult. What’s more important is life. It’s our people, our children,” said Grygorii Vovchynskyi after he won the men’s standing sprint biathlon on the first full day of competition at the National Biathlon Centre in Zhangjiakou.

Oksana Shyshkova has won three gold medals and two silver medals in Beijing, but asked on the opening Saturday of the Games what her medal hopes were after clinching victory in her opening race, she said: “I do not have any hopes, I just want peace for Ukraine.”

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Read more on theguardian.com