Honorable mentions. Five more discoveries of Ukrainian sports in 2025

This week, Sport.ua summed up its results of the year in the nomination of Top 10 discoveries of Ukrainian sports in 2025. But, as in any top, due to the subjectivity of such ratings, there are always those who deserve to be there, but for some reason did not enter. In this article, we highlight five more Ukrainian sports discoveries of the past year, which did not enter the top 10, but also fully deserved to be in it. In English it is called Honorable Mentions.

Maria Khohelko (short track) In February, 16-year-old short track athlete Maria Khokhelko entered the history of Ukrainian sports. At the 2025 European Youth Olympic Festival in Batumi, Georgia, Maria won the 1,000 meters and became the first representative of Ukrainian short track in history to win a gold medal at this level of competition. Khohelko also won bronze medals in the remaining distances, 500 and 1500 meters, but she was close to victory there as well. After this triumph, Maria was recognized as the best athlete of February according to the NOC of Ukraine.

This season, Maria Khochelko has two podiums at the second stage of the European Danubia Series, which took place in December in Trnava, Slovakia. There, the Ukrainian took third place at the distance of 1500 meters and second at the distance of 100 meters. Also in the current season, Maria made her debut in the Junior World Cup.

Nazar Parnytskyi (speedway) FSU Nazar Parnitskyi This year, Nazar Parnytskyi became the first Ukrainian speedway world champion in history. So far, only in the SGP2, youth class. But the 18-year-old Ukrainian is already ready to fight for adult titles. In the next season, Nazar will be the first reserve in the main world speedway series SpeedwayGP, which means, with a high probability, he will get the opportunity to make his debut in it and prove himself.

This season, Parnytskyi finished in the top 5 of the SEC Speedway European Championship, where his opponents were riders with experience in the world’s main Speedway GP series, and took second place at the third stage in Leszno, Poland. In the Polish club championship, Nazar was also one of the best for Union of Leszno, which he helped to return to the elite division, the Extraliga. As part of his team, the Ukrainian became the fourth in terms of the average set of points per race, the third in the number of race wins, points scored and the sum of points plus bonuses.

Gleb Khochyn (skating sport) Youtube (Skating ISU). Hleb Khochyn All year long, Hleb Khochyn rewrote the history of Ukrainian (and not only) skating sports. In February, 16-year-old Khochyn became the first Ukrainian figure skater in history to enter the top 10 of the junior world championships, and in March he confidently defended his championship title at the prestigious Viking Race European competition, the unofficial European U16 championship.

In the current season, Gleb Khochyn continued to write history and at the beginning of December became the first Ukrainian medalist in the history of the stage of the Junior World Cup in skating. And the icing on this cake is an endless series of national records that Gleb brings home from almost every tournament in which he participates.

Evfrosinia Kryvytska and Ivan Labunets (acrobatics) FIG. Evfrosinia Kryvytska and Ivan Labunets Ukrainian mixed doubles Evfrosinia Kryvytska and Ivan Labunets not only announced themselves, but became giants of world acrobatics among mixed doubles. 16-year-old Efrosinia and 20-year-old Ivan won all the tournaments of the current season in which they participated – four stages of the World Cup out of five, the European championship in balance (dynamics and combination – a rare case when Kryvytska and Labunets did not win) and, finally, the World Games.

Kryvytska and Labunets closed the year at the end of November with a victory at the prestigious Polish Grand Prix tournament in Lancsut, where for the first time they did not receive their usual downgrade due to the difference in growth. And with the fact that Efrosinia and Ivan consistently score more than three points for the difficulty of all three exercises, there is almost no doubt that they will dominate world acrobatics for years to come.

Anastasia Parkhomenko (handball) FSU Anastasia Parkhomenko Anastasia Parkhomenko, the left midfielder of Spartak, returned to the game after a serious knee injury and became one of the best handball players in the Kyiv team. 18-year-old Anastasia becomes one of the best and most effective handball players in almost every match as part of Spartak, which came third in the Super League last season and is in second place this season.

Parkhomenko also became the European champion in this age category as part of the Ukrainian U-19 national team, the best sniper in the final match against the Slovakian team, and was recognized as one of the best players of the 2025 U-19 European Championship. Also, Anastasia steadily receives calls to the national team of Ukraine and, most likely, will make her debut in the near future.