"Come Back Alive" joins in organizing the participation of the Ukrainian team in the Air Force Trials
The NGO “Come Back Alive!” has joined the financing and organization of the participation of a team of Ukrainian veterans and military personnel in the United States Air Force Trials, which will be held on March 4-16, 2024 in the United States.
In the spring, Come Back Alive, together with INTERTOP, raised UAH 12,031,578 to support the Ukrainian national team in the Invictus Games 2023 and rehabilitate veterans through sports as part of the Support the Invictus project. In total, as of November, UAH 5,458,095 of the raised amount has been processed. The remaining money will be used by the organization for the Ukrainian team’s participation in the United States Air Force Trials 2024.
“We have worked hard to use donations to the Support the Invictus project as efficiently as possible,” says Taras Kovalyk, Head of the Veterans Department at Come Back Alive!. – “Thanks to close cooperation with the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, in addition to the funds raised, we managed to allocate about UAH 9 million of state funds for the Invictus Games 2023. Also, the Ukrainian team was supported by the NATO Trust Fund on Medical Rehabilitation, Support to Patients in the amount of more than UAH 1.5 million.
The goal of our organization and partners is to make adaptive sports popular, and we are confidently taking the first steps in this direction. Thanks to the Air Force Trials, about 100 more veterans and servicemen who were injured, wounded, or ill while defending their homeland will be able to undergo rehabilitation through sports this year at the first mass training camp in adaptive sports in Ukraine.”
The United States Air Force Trials 2024 all-Ukrainian competition will be held on December 12-14, 2023, preceded by a two-week training camp in adaptive sports from December 1 to 11. As a result, a team of 30 people will be selected to travel to the United States Air Force Trials 2024 in Las Vegas, where they will have the opportunity to learn from the experience of domestic competitions in the United States and compete side by side with US veterans and military personnel.
The Ukrainian team will compete, train and perform in the U.S. in the following sports: cycling, rowing, track and field, wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, powerlifting, swimming, and archery.
Ukraine has been participating in the Invictus Games since 2017. Since 2019, Come Back Alive specialists have been involved in the selection of the team, accompanying it at all stages of preparation and at the competition itself.
This year, the Ukrainian team consisted of 25 participants. On September 9-16, in Dusseldorf, Germany, Ukrainians competed in track and field athletics, powerlifting, rowing, swimming, archery, cycling, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball and table tennis. The team won 34 medals – 12 gold, 14 silver and eight bronze.