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Ukrainian veterans emerged this weekend with the team's first medals at the fifth Invictus Games, a "multi-national sporting event for wounded, injured and sick veterans" now underway at The Hague, Netherlands.
"We have the first medal on Invictus Games The Hague 2020!," Invictus Games: Team Ukraine announced Sunday on Facebook.
Rodion Sitdikov won gold in the shot put with a result of 9.46 meters, according to the team.
Other medals followed for the team of Ukrainian veterans.
In the long jump, Artem Lukasuk earned a silver medal at 5.20 meters while fellow countryman Ivan Geretsun earned a bronze medal at 5.10 meters. Oleksiy Bobcinec added another bronze in the 1,500-meter run.
"We are so incredibly proud. Glory to Ukraine," the team posted.
The Return Alive Foundation, a Ukrainian charity dedicated to helping veterans, praised Sitdikov's efforts in a Telegram message reported by life.pravda.com.ua.
"Rodion is an extraordinary man! Bright and deep," the message said. "In 2015, after participating in the fighting in the Luhansk region, the man was diagnosed with cancer. But he won here too! He was able to enter remission, as he says, thanks to love and sports."
The LMN news website at www.lmn.in.ua reported the Siberian-born Sitdikov was "educated in Ukraine, married a Ukrainian woman, but could not fully perceive himself as a Ukrainian." So he left his career as chairman of a furniture factory to be "a volunteer shooter to the military unit of the National Guard."
"Ukraine raised me, it gave me everything I had when I was 40 years old," he said. "I just had to have Ukrainian citizenship. I wanted to be with her, I really wanted to be home. I am responsible for the choice I made in 2014. Now I realize for myself that I am Ukrainian, now I can say: 'Guys, I'm like you!'"
Sitdikov spent a year in Eastern Ukraine, where he was diagnosed with cancer after losing consciousness from injuries he suffered in Crimea.
Postponed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's games take place through Friday.
This year's competition brings together more than 500 competitors from 20 nations "to compete in a series of adaptive sports," according to the Invictus Games Foundation.
After a 2013 trip to the Warrior Games, Prince Harry, a founding figure in the Invictus Games, "saw first-hand how the power of sport can help physically, psychologically and socially those suffering from injuries and illness. He was inspired by his visit and the Invictus Games was born."
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attended Saturday's opening ceremonies, as well as events on Sunday.
About the writer
Margaret Weaver is a Newsweek night editor based in Pennsylvania. Her focus is covering U.S. politics, crime and public health. ... Read more