“Sport.ua highlights the most unique achievements of our athletes”, — write: sport.ua
Golden wrestling team Four golds, four bronzes and two more participations in bronze matches – this is the summary of the performance of ten Ukrainian wrestlers at the European Championship, which took place in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The continental champions were Oksana Livach (weight category up to 50 kg), Iryna Bondar (up to 62 kg), Alla Belinska (up to 72 kg) and Anastasia Alpeeva (up to 76 kg), Oleksandra Khomenets (up to 55 kg), Solomiya Vinnyk (up to 57 kg), Alina Filipovich (up to 59 kg) and Iryna Kolyadenko (up to 65 kg) won bronze. The other two girls – Liliya Malanchuk (up to 53 kg) and Manola Skobelska (up to 68 kg) – lost in the fight for third place. An impressive success that has never been seen in the history of our women’s wrestling.
This Euro was the first official tournament under the leadership of the new head coach Volodymyr Yaremenko, who until now was known as the personal mentor of two-time Olympic medalist Iryna Kolyadenko. Yaremenko himself, on the eve of the 2025 European Championship, was recognized as the best coach of Europe in 2024, thus confirming this title in real time. Along with personal awards, Ukrainian women received a prize for winning the team championship.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine Ukrainian in the strongest team in the world On August 12, 2025, the defender of the national football team of Ukraine, Ilya Zabarny, after long negotiations, officially transferred from the English “Bormouth”, for which he spent three seasons in the Premier League, to the ranks of the current winner of the Champions League – the French “Paris Saint-Germain”. Ilya signed a five-year contract with PSG and became the first Ukrainian player in the history of the team.
Currently, you cannot call the adaptation to Luis Enrique’s requirements painless for the Ukrainian. He had successful, but also frankly unsuccessful matches. Ilya started the season as a stable base player, and now he is forced to regain this status again. In 13 League 1 matches, Zabarny scored one goal, hitting the Auxerre goal in September.
The historical rise of women’s volleyball players The women’s volleyball team of Ukraine won the Golden Euroleague. In principle, nothing unique, because the team achieved similar success in 2023, and in 2017 it became the winner of the Euroleague in a slightly different format. However, this year’s success has a historical tone, because the rating points gained during the tournament were enough to make it to the League of Nations, the most prestigious commercial tournament of world volleyball at the national team level, for the first time in history.
In the League of Nations, Ukrainian women will debut in the new year, and in 2025, a kind of rehearsal took place. For the first time since 1994, our team performed at the World Championship. In an extremely difficult group, with at that time the reigning world champions, the Serbian women, and the fourth team in the FIVB rating, Japan. The Ukrainian women, led by the Polish coach Jakub Hlushak, conceded to Serbia without much chance, but the Japanese women gave a fight and even led the match 2:0. In the end, the more experienced representatives of Asia did win, but Ukraine also showed that it will not be hopeless in the League of Nations in 2026. Ukrainian women confidently won the final match against the Cameroon national team.
It is worth noting that along with the experienced Svitlana Dorsman, Khrystyna Nemtseva, Oleksandra Milenko, the best volleyball player of Ukraine-2025 Daryna Shargorodskaya, who is only 23, the talented Andriana Pavlyk, Polina Gerasimchuk, Polina Dzyuba and other girls are growing up, who should make a full statement in the near future.
A miracle from Losano The Ukrainian men’s volleyball team made its debut in the League of Nations last year. Before the start, our usually skeptical fans predicted a fiasco for the team led by the experienced Argentinian Raul Losano, wrote in the comments that the big success would not even be victory in individual matches, but locally won sets. Like, without the star Plotnytskyi, who is ignoring the national team for the second year in a row during a full-scale war, we have nothing to do in the League of Nations.
But Losano is considered one of the best volleyball coaches today for a reason. The team with the Argentinian at the head from the first matches played in the League of Nations as if it has been a stable participant for more than one year. It all started with a stunning crushing victory over the Americans, and continued with a strong-willed victory over Cuba. In addition, our volleyball players tickled the Brazilians’ nerves in front of the crowded Maracanazinho stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Yes, they conceded 2:3, but it was a good effort. In the following game weeks, the Ukrainians defeated teams from Turkey, Japan, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. At least one victory in the final three matches would lead our team to the playoffs.
However, this step turned out to be too much for the Ukrainians. According to most experts, the team simply “ran out of fuel” and lacked the depth of the team. Yes, Dmytro Yanchuk played in the League of Nations no worse than Plotnytskyi would have done, Yury Semenyuk became the best blocker in the League of Nations according to statistics, Vasyl Tupchiy played all matches very well, libero Oleksandr Boyko defended well, Vitaliy Shchytkov and Yuriy Sinytsya passed well, replacing each other, Ilya Kovalev spent two of the three game weeks at the highest level. But the fact is that when Ilya had problems, there was no one to replace him. Just as other leaders looked irreplaceable. After all, six wins in 12 Nations League matches is a great result for a debutant.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine The third time is absolute Oleksandr Usyk became the absolute world champion for the third time in his career. And in the second – in heavyweight. On July 19, 2025, Alexander knocked out the British Daniel Dubois in the fifth round and again collected the belts of all four leading versions in his hands.
The Briton, who screamed about injustice in their first face-to-face confrontation (then the referee did not count a knockdown from DuBois due to a groin), frankly failed in the second fight. Usyk, as expected, focused on power and accuracy, and not on running, and in the fifth round he put his opponent on the canvas with a left hook.
Don’t push the horses. If the children did not yet know who Oleksandr Usyk was, then in 2025, at least thanks to a popular meme, they understood everything.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine Golden canoe Canoeist Lyudmila Luzan became the first representative of Olympic sports in Ukrainian history to win four gold medals at one world championship. At first, Lyudmila warmed up well at the continental championships: she won gold in the 500-meter single canoe and three silvers (by herself in the 200-meter; in the double canoe together with Iryna Fedorov in the 200 and 500 m), and after two m Isyatsi at the same distances and with the same partner won four gold medals at the World Championships in Milan.
Let’s add that, in general, Lyudmila is already an eight-time world champion and a four-time European champion.
Iron man 40-year-old Ukrainian Andrii Tkachuk, nicknamed the Tramp, became the world champion in 24-hour running. In French Alba, the Ukrainian won very convincingly, ahead of the closest pursuer, Norwegian Jo Inge Norum, by 9 kilometers. In 24 hours, Tkachuk covered 294,062 km. This achievement is unique in itself, and if you also know the impressive life story of the champion, then the surprise will be maximum.
Tkachuk from Khust in Transcarpathia, who defended Ukraine with weapons in his hands in the ranks of the “Sich” battalion and was forced to demobilize due to his health, is considered one of the strongest ultramarathoners in the world for a long time. He is a multiple national champion in one-day, two-day running and trail running.
The emperor’s cup in blue and yellow colors Danylo Yavgusyshyn, a 21-year-old wrestler from Vinnytsia who competes in professional Japanese sumo under Aonishiki Arata, is one of the main discoveries of not only Ukrainian, but also world sports. In just three years, Danylo went from the first steps in professional Japanese sumo to winning the most prestigious trophy, the Emperor’s Cup, and receiving the second rank of Ozeki. Only Yokozuna is higher. Yavgusyshyn started 2025 in the second strongest division called Dzyuryo. But after taking second place at the very first tournament in January, in March the Ukrainian made his debut in the Makuuchi elite division.
Danylo won 11 victories in four tournaments in a row, in particular, in July he defeated Yokozuna Tomokatsu Hosoryu, for which he received the first golden kinboshi star in his career. Aonishiki reached it only in 12 professional tournaments, which is an absolute record in the recent history of sumo, which dates back to 1958, when the system of six tournaments per year was introduced. The crown of a brilliant year was the victory at the November tournament in Fukuoka, winning the first Emperor’s Cup in Ukrainian history and receiving the rank of odzeki. Moreover, Yavgusyshyn won spectacularly, defeating the same yokozun Khosyoru in an additional championship match.
“Deepest” world record Ukrainian freediver Kateryna Sadurska set a world record for the ninth time in diving with constant weight without fins (CNF). It happened at the “Deep Dominica” competition under the auspices of CMAS. In Dominica, the Ukrainian freediver renewed her previous world record — she dived to 88 m, improving her achievement by two meters.
It is interesting that Kateryna surpassed her first world record, set in July 2023 on Vertical Blue, by 14 meters.
“I dreamed about this dive since last year and I’m glad that it happened. 88 meters — no flippers, one breath, 3 minutes 30 seconds, my ninth world record in this discipline, and it’s hard to believe, but it’s 14 meters deeper than my first record, which I set in 2023,” Sadurska wrote on Instagram.
Attractive wrapper For the first time since 2009, all three hockey teams of Ukraine – national, youth and youth – played in the 1A division of the world championship, the second strongest after the elite one. And they didn’t just perform or were extras there, but had the most real chances to get into the top division. As Oleksandr Godyniuk, the curator of the national teams, a scout of the Vegas Golden Knights NHL club, aptly noted in an interview with Sport.ua, “in the vertical of the Ukrainian national teams, there are very strong coaches who are ahead of most colleagues from the teams we have to play with in terms of expertise.”
The national team, led by the coaching duo Hrystich-Shafarenko, was half a step away from joining the elite. Having won the first three matches out of four, it was enough for the Ukrainians in the final match not to lose to the Japanese national team in regular time. However, the Japanese won 3:2 and prevented the main sensation of Ukrainian sports in 2025.
The youth national team (U18), managed by the duo Bobkin-Borysenko, became second in division 1A for the second time in a row. Our hockey players lost only one match out of five – against the Danish national team. And although the defeat was not due to the game, the Scandinavians did not misfire in the next three matches and will play in the top division in 2026.
But the Ukrainian youth (U20) did not realize its potential. According to the level of equipment, the team coached by Andriy Sryubko was able to fight for entry into the top division, but in the end, it almost dropped in the class. Our hockey players shocked with the starting victory 2:1 in overtime over the regular favorites Kazakhstan, and in the second meeting they led 2:0 in the meeting with the Norwegians until the 54th minute. However, the Ukrainians did not manage to keep their advantage and in the end they lost in a shootout. After that, there were two more defeats against the Slovenians and the Austrians, and a valid final match for life against the French, where our team was trailing 0:2, but was able to equalize the situation and win in the final seconds.
