The Come Back Alive Foundation together with INTERTOP raised UAH 12,031,578 to support the National Team of Ukraine in the Invictus Games 2023 and rehabilitate veterans through sports as part of the Support the Invictus project.
Ukrainian defenders who were wounded and injured in combat will represent our country and the army at the international adaptive sports competitions for veterans on September 9-16 in Dusseldorf.
On June 5, Kyiv announced the names of 25 participants who will take part in the Invictus Games. 11 members of the team are veterans of the war with russia, and the rest are active servicemen of the Defense forces.
The team included: Veniamin Bondarchuk, Nazar Vozniuk, Pavlo Luchkiv, Volodymyr Hera, Maksym Dmytrash, Ihor Derman, Mykola Zaritskyi, Volodymyr Tovkys, Yevhen Kireyonok, Kostiantyn Kobylianu, Semen Lagun, Oleksandr Makovey, Ivan Moldun, Dmytro Polovian, Oleksandr Ponomariov, Yaryna Alimanova, Oleksandr Budko, Oleh Dolzhok, Maksym Zubov, Vadym Maznichenko, Yuliia Paievska, Bohdan Yarotskyi, Vitaliy Borodavka, Dmytro Kozak, Yuliia Shevchuk.
On July 9, the first training camp for the Ukrainian national team at the Invictus Games ended. The participants trained for 18 days in swimming, archery, athletics, cycling, rowing on simulators, powerlifting, table tennis, sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball.
The second training camp took place from July 24 to August 1. The team trained in wheelchair basketball under the guidance of Taras Shpuk, a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war and a member of the Come Back Alive team. Hannah Walker, coach of the U.S. national wheelchair basketball team, helped prepare the participants. In addition to training, the team visited rehabilitation centers. The participants worked with psychologists.
On August 15, the team left for Croatia for the third training camp, which lasted about two weeks. From there, the participants traveled to Germany for training.
The Ukrainian national team won 34 medals at the Invictus Games 2023 in Dusseldorf. The team has 12 gold, 14 silver, and eight bronze medals.
On 9-16 September, the Ukrainians competed in athletics, powerlifting, rowing, swimming, archery, cycling, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball and table tennis.
The most successful events for our team were rowing on simulators – 11 medals, swimming – nine awards and archery – five.
Nazar Vozniuk, a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, won the most medals for Ukraine: four gold and a silver in swimming and rowing. He brought another silver medal to the team together with Oleksandr Ponomariov, Ihor Derman and Yevhen Kireyonok in the swimming relay.
Volodymyr Tovkys won two gold medals in rowing and a bronze medal in discus throwing. Vadim Maznichenko won a bronze medal in archery. Maksym Zubov won a silver medal in powerlifting. Volodymyr Tovkys, Maksym Zubov and Vadym Maznichenko also won gold in archery together.
Mykola Zaritskyi brought the team gold and silver medals in rowing on simulators. He also won gold in the shot put and silver in the discus. Yuliia Shevchuk won a gold medal in archery and two silver medals in rowing. Pavlo Luchkiv won gold in archery.
Oleksandr Makovey brought Ukraine a gold medal in the shot put.
Maksym Dmytrash has two silver medals – in rowing and long jump.
Ivan Moldun won two silver medals in rowing and swimming.
Oleg Dolzhok won a silver medal in rowing.
Volodymyr Hera won a silver medal in the discus throw.
Dmytro Polovian won two bronze medals in swimming, and another bronze medal was won by Oleksandr Budko.
Vitaliy Borodavka won bronze in the 100m dash, and Yaryna Alimanova won bronze in the cycling competition.
Yuliia ”Taira” Paievska won a bronze medal in archery and a silver medal in the 50m freestyle among women in the ISD category. She was personally awarded by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Ukraine has been participating in the Invictus Games since 2017. Since 2019, Come Back Alive experts have been involved in the selection of the team, accompanying them at all stages of preparation and at the competition itself.