Ukraine at the 2014 Winter Olympics

Ukraine at the 2014 Winter Olympics
IOC code	UKR
NOC	National Olympic Committee of Ukraine
Website	www.noc-ukr.org (Ukrainian) (English)
in Sochi
Competitors	45 in 9 sports
Flag bearer	Valentina Shevchenko (opening)[1] Vita Semerenko (closing)[2]
Medals Ranked 20th	Gold Silver Bronze Total 1 0 1 2
Winter Olympics appearances (overview)
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014
Other related appearances
Russian Empire (1900–1912)  Austria (1896-1912)  Hungary (1896–1912) Czechoslovakia (1920–1936) Poland (1924–1936) Romania (1924–1936) Soviet Union (1952–1988) Unified Team (1992)

Ukraine competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, from 7 to 23 February 2014. The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine sent a total of 45 athletes.^[3] The women's relay victory gave Ukraine its second Winter Games gold medal ever.^[4] The first was won by Oksana Baiul at the 1994 Winter Olympics.^[5] On 22 February, cross-country skier Marina Lisogor was excluded from the Olympics after testing positive for trimetazidine.^[6]

Medalists

2014 Ukrainian stamp commemorating the gold medal

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
01 ! Gold	Vita Semerenko Juliya Dzhyma Valj Semerenko Olena Pidhrushna	Biathlon	Women's relay	21 February
03 ! Bronze	Semerenko, VitaVita Semerenko	Biathlon	Women's sprint	9 February

Alpine skiing

Ukraine qualified 2 berths, one male and one female.

Biathlon

Based on their performance at the 2012 and 2013 Biathlon World Championships, Ukraine qualified 5 men and 6 women.^[7]

Men

Women

Athlete	Event	Time	Misses	Rank
Juliya Dzhyma	Sprint	22:55.5	3 (1+2)	42
	Pursuit	DNS
	Individual	45:49.9	1 (0+1+0+0)	7
	Mass start	38:10.8	4 (0+0+2+2)	22
Olena Pidhrushna	Sprint	22:12.8	1 (0+1)	26
	Pursuit	31:54.2	1 (0+0+0+1)	22
	Individual	45:59.5	1 (0+0+0+1)	8
	Mass start	36:37.1	0 (0+0+0+0)	7
Valj Semerenko	Sprint	21:44.9	1 (0+1)	12
	Pursuit	30:23.6	1 (1+0+0+0)	5
	Individual	47:28.2	2 (1+0+1+0)	19
	Mass start	37:03.5	2 (0+0+2+0)	12
Vita Semerenko	Sprint	21:28.5	0 (0+0)	03 !
	Pursuit	30:40.3	2 (0+1+1+0)	10
	Individual	48:29.2	3 (0+0+0+3)	29
	Mass start	37:16.1	1 (0+0+1+0)	16
Juliya Dzhyma Olena Pidhrushna Valj Semerenko Vita Semerenko	Team relay	1:10:02.5	5 (0+5)	01 !

Mixed

Mariya Panfilova (left)

Cross-country skiing

Ukraine qualified 7 berths.

Distance

Men

Women

Sprint

Men

Women

According to press reports Lisogor and Serdyuk had refused to start because they had been denied to wear black arm bands to honor those killed in the violent clashes Ukrainian's capital Kiev the previous day.^[8] The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine claimed Serdyuk was injured.^[9]

Figure skating

Ukraine has achieved the following quota places:

Team trophy

Freestyle skiing

Ukraine qualified 7 berths, three male and four female (all aerial).

Aerials

Luge

Ukraine has qualified a total of six athletes and a spot in the team relay.

Nordic combined

Ukraine qualified one male athlete.

Short track speed skating

Ukraine qualified 1 woman in the 1000 m for the Olympics during World Cup 3 and 4 in November 2013.

Women

Qualification legend: ADV – Advanced due to being impeded by another skater; FA – Qualify to medal round; FB – Qualify to consolation round

Snowboarding

Ukraine qualified 2 berths, one male and one female (all parallel).

Alpine

Concerns and controversies

On 19 February 2014, Ukrainian athletes asked for and were refused permission by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to wear black armbands to honour those killed in the violent clashes in Ukrainian's capital Kiev on the previous day.^[10] According to IOC spokesman Mark Adams, "They weren't forbidden to wear armbands. The Ukrainian NOC met with IOC officials informally yesterday. They discussed what should be done, and they reached the conclusion there were other ways of marking this moment. Some athletes have taken other views and other ways of doing things".^[11] IOC president Thomas Bach offered his condolences "to those who have lost loved ones in these tragic events".^[10]

Alpine skier Bohdana Matsotska refused to participate further at the Olympic Games in protest against the violence.^[12] She and her father posted a message on Facebook stating, "In solidarity with the fighters on the barricades of the Maidan, and as a protest against the criminal actions made towards the protesters, the irresponsibility of the president and his issues with the government, we refuse further performance at the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014".^[12] Matsotska was reportedly followed by about thirty Ukrainian athletes who left Sochi and returned to their country (mostly after having competed), leaving a dozen present at the Games.^[13]

On 20 February 2014, the Ukrainian NOC reported that as many as half of the Ukrainian athletes at the Olympics had left the games to return home.^[3] But according to Ukrainian NOC president Sergey Bubka they had returned home in compliance with their original schedule, and their departure was thus not related to the riots in Kiev.^[14] According to Bubka, the remaining athletes did plan to participate in the closing ceremony.^[14] In a statement on 20 February 2014, the Ukrainian team had expressed condolences for the dead and stated, "We are thinking about our families and loved ones back home in Ukraine, and we are doing our best to honour them on the fields of play here in Sochi. We appeal for peace and mutual understanding to find a positive way forward for Ukraine".^[15]

Figure skater Natalia Popova stated after finishing her figure skating short program on 20 February, "That’s very unfortunate because you just want peace everywhere. But all I can do is just focus on my performance and, hopefully, my skating can inspire the people back in Ukraine to be more peaceful with each other".^[15] Olympic biathlete Olena Pidhrushna at a news conference after her women's relay victory asked for a minute's silence in memory of the people who died in Kiev.^[4]

See also

• Ukraine at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics

References

External links

• Ukraine at the 2014 Winter Olympics