“Sport.ua analyzed the prospects of all our Olympians”, — write: sport.ua
The fight for Olympic licenses ended yesterday, January 18, and now we can get additional quotas only in case of force majeure or something like a wild card. In this article, Sport.ua tells about the potential of our country for the Games in Italy. Ukraine will be represented in eight sports out of 16 included in the Olympic program, and we will structure our analysis by sports. There will be no representatives of our state in bobsleigh, curling, hockey, ski dueling, ski mountaineering and speed skating.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Dmytro Kotovskyi Freestyle (acrobatics) – 7 or 8 licenses In skiing acrobatics, Ukraine was competitive at each of the Olympics, where it performed in an independent status. Oleksandr Abramenko brought gold and silver from the two previous Games. Before that, the Ukrainians were constantly standing one step away from the awards. However, we have never had such a powerful team, which was created by the once very strong athlete Enver Ablayev. 37-year-old Abramenko, who has five Olympics under his belt, has already completed his performances, but there were those who worthy replaced him.
As a result of the qualifying competitions, Ukraine won seven Olympic licenses. In the men’s competition, Ukrainians received the maximum quota and will be able to field four acrobats, while in the women’s competition, three of our athletes will be represented. Ukraine, if you believe Ablayev, will also receive the fourth women’s license. Nelly Popovych claims it. The Ukrainian woman, who according to the qualifying Olympic ranking took 24th place and could count on obtaining a fourth license, did not receive it due to another selection criterion related to mixed team competitions. However, according to Ablayev, Popovych will still receive a ticket to the Olympics after the redistribution of quotas.
Licenses in freestyle are anonymous, but the coaching staff of our team has already decided on the composition. The composition of the men’s team is especially impressive. In the 2025/26 season, Dmytro Kotovskyi and Oleksandr Okipniuk each have a victory at the stages of the World Cup. Kotovsky was fourth in the final cup standings. Another medal of the World Cup stages was won by Jan Havryuk, who took second place in Lake Placid. For Ian and Maxim Kuznetsov, the Games in Milan and Cortina will be the first in their careers, while Okipniuk and Kotovsky performed in Beijing-2022, taking 9th and 15th places, respectively.
The women’s team looks modest against the background of the men’s team. For all Ukrainian women – Angelina Brykina, Diana Yablonska, Oksana Yatsyuk and probably Nelly Popovych – this will be the debut Olympics in their careers. Angelina Brykina became the highest-ranked member of the team at the end of the 2025/26 World Cup – 17th place. At the same time, during the Olympic season, Ukrainians never managed to get to the super final round.
It should be noted that last year at the World Championship in Engadin, Switzerland, Ukraine won a historic silver medal in the mixed team competition. Then Brykina, Okipnyuk and Kotovsky climbed the podium. This species is included in the Olympic program.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Kateryna Kotsar Freestyle (big air and slopestyle) – 1 license For the first time, Ukraine will perform at the Olympics in two freestyle disciplines – big air and slopestyle. The historic license was obtained by 25-year-old Kateryna Kotsar, who took 17th place in the overall standings of the World Cup and at the same time won the first cup stage medal in the history of Ukraine in big air – she became second in the American Steamboat last year in December. Before the first podium, Kateryna was ninth twice at the stages in the Chinese Zhapnyakou and Beijing.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Dmytro Pidruchnyi Biathlon – 10 licenses Last time, Ukraine’s main medal hopes were not related to biathlon exactly 20 years ago. And then the Olympics were also held in Italy, in Turin. Interestingly, in 2006, despite the lack of real expectations, shooting skiers won the award – Liliya Efremova-Vaygina won bronze in the sprint.
Currently, the Ukrainians are not among the favorites, but they are capable of surprising. Especially the team leader, Dmytro Pidruchny, the first biathlon world champion in Ukrainian history. The pursuit race at the World Cup stage in Oberhof showed that Dmytro is gradually gaining the form that allows him to fight for the highest places. In Oberhof, Dmytro rose from the 41st position according to the results of the sprint to seventh. If it weren’t for a single mistake, he could very well have swung to the podium. Pidruchny will miss the final pre-Olympic cup stage in Nove Mesto, because this start is out of the plan of his preparation for the Olympics.
Vitaly Mandzin, for whom this will be the first Olympics in his career, is also capable of taking high places if he shoots perfectly in the individual race.
All others are darkness. Licenses in biathlon are anonymous, so the coaches will decide on the composition at the last moment. However, it is not possible to expect that anyone, except Pidruchny and Mandzin, will add enough to fight at least for places in the 20s, unfortunately. There is obviously no hope for Sochi-2014 Olympic champion Yulia Dzhima either. She started the season only with the January stage of the World Cup in Oberhof, where she took 82nd place in the sprint with only one miss. The loss of the winner was almost four minutes.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Vladyslav Geraskevych Skeleton – 1 license 27-year-old Vladyslav Geraskevych will be the flag bearer of Ukraine at his third Olympics. At the previous two Games, Vladyslav was 12th in PyeongChang and 22nd in Beijing. In the current inter-Olympic cycle, Vladyslav seriously added. At the 2025 World Championship, he stopped a step away from the podium, finishing fourth. At this year’s European Championship, Geraskevych also took the highest place in his career – eighth. I would like to believe that the first podium in my career will fall on Milan-Cortina.
It should be noted that one more Ukrainian, 18-year-old Yaroslav Lavrenyuk, who last year became the world champion among juniors, fell just short of the Olympic license.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Annamarie Dancha Snowboard – 1 license The only Ukrainian snowboarder at the 2026 Games will be the experienced Annamari Dancha, for whom these Games will be the fifth in her career. The 35-year-old athlete performs in parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom. In 2019, after winning silver in Park City, she became the first world championship medalist in the history of Ukrainian snowboarding.
The current season for Annemarie is also coming together not bad. At the stage of the World Cup in Davos, the Ukrainian woman finished fourth for the first time during her performances at the stages of the World Cup, losing in the heat for bronze. In general, in the elimination round (top-16), Dancha performed five times in the 2025/26 season.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Andriy Mandziy Luge sports – 7 licenses In Milan-Cortina, seven Ukrainian lugers will be presented at once. The individual program will feature Anton Dukach and Andriy Mandziy in the men’s category, Yulianna Tunytska and Olena Smaga in the women’s category. For the first time in history, we will have a representation in the women’s two-seater sled, where the crew consisting of Olena Stetskiv and Oleksandra Mokh will perform. Ihor Goy and Nazariy Kachmar will obviously compete in the men’s two-seater sled for Ukraine. Also, Ukraine will be represented in the team relay, as it won at least one license in each event.
It is clear that it will be difficult for Ukrainians to count on a medal, but our lugers are capable of taking high places. For example, last week, 37-year-old Andriy Mandziy, who will be participating in the fourth Olympics in his career, won the Nations Cup stage. 30-year-old Anton Dukach, who is preparing to compete at his third Games, was fourth in Oberhof at the same time.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Evgeny Marusiak Jumping from a springboard – 2 licenses Yevhen Marusiak received a license according to the main criterion for the distribution of quotas, according to the overall score of the World Cup. The Ukrainian with 167 points is ranked 52nd.
Vitaly Kalinichenko brought the second license to Ukraine. Here, the selection criterion is different: Ukraine became one of the four countries in favor of which licenses for participation in the men’s team tournament were redistributed. Kalinichenko became one of the highest rated jumpers who applied for the distribution of these licenses. It should be noted that licenses in ski jumping are anonymous.
For Kalinichenko, this will be the second Olympics in his career. At the previous one, he was 44th in jumping from a large springboard. Marusiak, taking 25th place in Sapporo, just last Sunday updated his personal record at the stages of the World Cup.
Among the women, Zhanna Glukhova and Karina Kozlova applied for licenses, but the girls did not reach the quotas.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Kyrylo Marsak Figure skating – 1 license Kyrylo Marsak will be the only representative of Ukraine in one of the most priority winter sports. This is the historical minimum of representation, since no licenses were obtained in other types (couples, ice dancing, women). Such a failure is the result of many years of destructive activities led by the family of Daniil and Maryna Amirkhanovy, the head of Ukrainian figure skating.
As for Kyril Marsak, this guy pleasantly surprised at the European Championship, which took place last week. With a record total of points in his career (229.25), the 21-year-old from Kherson took eighth place. A little more point separated the Ukrainian from the top 6. Marsak’s eighth place is Ukraine’s best result in 26 years at the European Figure Skating Championships. The highest result before him was the bronze of Dmytro Dmytrenko in 2000.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Oleg Gandey Short track – 2 licenses Ukraine won three Olympic licenses: two men’s quotas (distances 500 m and 1500 m) and one women’s (500 m), which were won by Oleg Gandei and Elizaveta Sydyorko. Note that licenses are anonymous. The coaching staff has not yet announced the final team.
Mountain skiing – 2 licenses Ukrainians obtained two licenses – one for a man and one for a woman – as part of the qualifying selection, which allowed Ukraine to have a small representation in this sport, although the process of distributing licenses depends on the FIS world ranking and national selections, and the final lists of participants will be known later.
Ski races – 5 licenses Ukraine obtained 5 licenses in classic skiing races, distributed according to the results of the Olympic rating: three for women and two for men, depending on the places of the country (17th among women, 22nd among men), which allowed to receive additional quotas in addition to the minimum ones. It is obvious that once again in this type of Olympic program our country will be represented by five tourists who will compete with the stars of African skiing.
