'Strong Ukraine': the cry of Ukrainian athletes with disabilities due to the war to demand adapted sport

Ukrainian participants will try to pull up to 4 trucks with a total weight of 56 tons with a rope

   MADRID, 12 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Eight Ukrainian athletes who suffer from disabilities as a result of the war will participate in a competition held in Madrid from October 12 to 15, organized by the Ukrainian embassy, ​​together with the United with Ukraine association and the Madrina Foundation. The athletes will be selected among the winners of the first veteran competition called 'Strong Ukraine' and seek to break a world record for strength.

All Ukrainian athletes "war veterans" have united under the name of 'Strong Ukrainians' who this year join for the first time in the "Arnold Classic Europe" event held in Madrid on October 15 at Caja Mágica. The objective of the event is to express your right to participate in international sports competitions.

The 'Forts of Ukraine' competition is the first Ukrainian "adapted sport" competition for veteran and disabled athletes who suffered serious injuries and wounds during the last war. These competitions have already been held in different cities of Ukraine such as Poltava, Zhytomyr, Uzhhorod and Rivne during 2023.

More than 400 veterans and athletes participated in these competitions. The main judge of the tournament will be the veteran Vasyl Virastyuk, world champion of Olympic strength and who will lead the delegation of Ukrainian athletes.

Vasyl Virastyuk assures that with this event, "the Ukrainian team wants to draw attention to the problem of sports rehabilitation in athletes, victims of war, requesting worldwide that international competitions be organized with athletes disabled by war."

The 'Arnold Classic Europe' competition is held every year in a different country and this year the sporting event has fallen on Spain, specifically in Madrid. This event is an international sports festival founded in 2011 by American actor and senator Arnold Schwarzenegger. Each edition, hundreds of athletes from more than 50 countries around the world participate in the challenge, competing to achieve world records.

In this competition, which will take place in the Caja Mágica in Madrid, Ukrainian athletes, selected from among the strongest, will try to pull up to 4 trucks with a total weight of 56 tons with a rope. If they succeed, they will set a new world record for strength.

The training of the athletes, who arrived in Madrid on the afternoon of October 11, will take place from October 12 to 14 in Caja Mágica, and the mark to beat will be the current strength record that currently exists and which they want to achieve on Sunday the 15th. October at 12:15 p.m. in the central stadium of Caja Mágica.

The national team of veterans will be formed by Oleksandr Shvachka (from Kiev), V'yacheslav Tsyukh (from Kyiv), Vladyslav Shatilo (from Chernihiv), Yevhen Smaga (from Chernihiv), Artem Marchenko (from Sumy), Artem Pohoriliy (from Poltava ), Mykhailo Drobotenko (de Kropivnytskyi), and Denis Barchuk (de Brovari).