At the 2026 Paralympics, Ukrainians won 6 medals and took first place in the country standings

The Ukrainian team brilliantly started their performance at the Paralympic Games of 2026. On the first competitive day, Ukrainian athletes won six medals and led the medal standings. This is reported by Suspilne Sport.

The first awards were won by Ukrainians in the biathlon. This sport opened the competition program for the «blue-yellow» team at the Paralympics.

Paralympics-2026: Ukrainians won the first medals

In the men's sprint race sitting, Ukraine was represented by five athletes:

• Oleksandr Alexik

• Pavlo Bal'

• Vasyl Kravchuk

• Taras Rad'

• Hryhoriy Shymko.

Victory in this event was won by Taras Rad'. The Ukrainian athlete completed the distance without a single miss and finished with a time of 19:55.5.

This is Rad's second Paralympic victory in his career. Previously, he won «gold» at the Beijing Games in the 12.5-kilometer race.

Ukraine's medals in biathlon at the 2026 Games

In the women's sprint race standing, Ukraine was represented by four athletes. The best result was shown by Oleksandra Kononova, who became the Paralympic champion.

Ukrainian results in the race:

• Oleksandra Kononova — gold medal

• Lyudmila Lyashenko — bronze medal

• Iryna Bui — fifth place

• Bohdana Konashuk — eighth place

Kononova finished the distance without misses and showed a result of 18:41.5, ahead of her nearest competitor by 5.9 seconds. For the athlete, this is her third Paralympic «gold» in biathlon and her first victory in this sport in the last 12 years.

Lyudmila Lyashenko won «bronze», making one miss at the second shooting range.

Thanks to the successful performances of Ukrainian athletes in biathlon, the Ukrainian team finished the first day of the 2026 Paralympics in first place in the medal standings.

As a reminder, yesterday the United Kingdom joined the boycott of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2026 Paralympic Games in Italy.