The President personally congratulated the deflypians, who for the first time in the history of Ukraine won the overall team competition at the Winter Games

Author:
Oleksandra Amru
Date:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi personally congratulated and awarded the deflypians, who won the overall team event at the Winter Games for the first time in the history of Ukraine.

During ten days of competition in Erzurum, Turkey, the team won a record 19 awards for Ukraine: ten gold, five silver and four bronze. This result allowed the team to finish the Deflympics in first place in the medal count for the first time in history. The three winners also included China (7 gold +7 silver +6 bronze) and Austria (6+1+3).

  • The Deflympics are the main competitions among athletes with hearing impairments, which have been held since 1924. The debut Winter Deflympics took place in 1949.
  • The anniversary 20th Winter Deflympic Games were supposed to take place in 2023, but they were postponed to 2024. At the same time, the official name remained "Deflimpiada-2023".
  • Although the International Olympic Committee (ICSD) allowed athletes from Russia and Belarus to return to the competition in 2023, they did not participate in the Games because they refused to comply with the rules of admission — among other things, there was a requirement to sign a declaration of non-support of Russiaʼs war against Ukraine.