Gold medalist Iryna Bui (center) silver medalist Oleksandra Kononova (left) and bronze medalist Liudmyla Liashenko celebrate after the women’s biathlon middle distance standing event at the 2022 Winter Paralympics on Tuesday.
Shuji Kajiyama/AP
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Shuji Kajiyama/AP
Gold medalist Iryna Bui (center) silver medalist Oleksandra Kononova (left) and bronze medalist Liudmyla Liashenko celebrate after the women’s biathlon middle distance standing event at the 2022 Winter Paralympics on Tuesday.
Shuji Kajiyama/AP
While Ukraine battles Russian forces at home, its Paralympic athletes are putting up a fight in Beijing. They’ve swept the podium not once but twice, racking up medals for their homeland despite their distractions and concerns.
Ukraine is second in the medal count behind China as of Tuesday morning ET, with six gold medals and 17 in total. Its athletes dominated the para biathlon events on Tuesday, with the men’s and women’s teams sweeping the middle distance vision impaired and standing categories, respectively.
Iryna Bui, Oleksandra Kononova and Liudmyla Liashenko won the top three medals in the women’s middle distance standing. Later, Ukrainian men took the top five spots in the middle distance vision impaired race, with Vitalii Lukianenko, Anatolii Kovalevskyi and Dmytro Suiarko each making it to the podium.
Organizers say this makes 43-year-old Lukianenko the most…