Winter Paralympics: Ukraine seals clean sweep of women’s biathlon in Beijing; Iryna Bui dedicates gold medal to ‘soldiers who protect us at home’
- ‘The whole world knows what’s going on in Ukraine, and now I know I have a mission here,’ gold medallist Bui says
- Melting snow does little to slow success of Chinese athletes, with day 4 seeing host add more gold to its record haul
A sense of purpose washed over Ukrainian athletes on day 4 of the Winter Paralympics, as gold medallist Iryna Bui led a clean sweep of the podium in the women’s biathlon.
“We would like to dedicate our results and medals to each and every Ukrainian and all the soldiers in the Ukrainian army who protect us,” Bui said on Russia’s invasion of her country.
Paralympic debutant Liu Mengtao, 20, won China’s eighth gold with victory in the Para biathlon men’s middle distance. But Ukraine athletes took centre stage, with Bui top of the podium along with Oleksandra Kononova and Liudmyla Liashenko.
“With our performance we represent the whole country and this is our battle here,” Bui said. “The whole world knows what’s going on in Ukraine at the moment and now I know that I have a mission here.”
Ukraine has a team of 20 Paralympians competing in Beijing. Their presence at the Winter Paralympics has been hailed as “one of the most fantastic stories ever at any edition of the Paralympic Games” by International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons.
