The Invictus Games 2023 have ended in Düsseldorf, Germany, with the Ukrainian team winning 34 medals.

The team in 2023 consisted of 25 participants, according to Suspilne TV.

Ukrainians performed at the Invictus Games for the fourth time.

This year’s competition was a record-breaking one for the national team. The team won 12 gold, 14 silver, and 8 bronze medals at the Invictus Games.

The participants included military personnel and veterans of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, and volunteer battalions.

The games lasted from September 9 to 16, 2023, and were attended by about 600 veterans and military personnel from 21 countries.

The competition featured ten types of adaptive sports, namely archery, athletics, table tennis, indoor rowing, powerlifting, road cycling, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, swimming, and wheelchair rugby.

The Ukrainian national team was represented in all sports except wheelchair rugby. However, some participants were able to play in this sport as part of mixed teams with military personnel and veterans from other countries.

The Invictus Games in Ukraine are organized by the Ministry of Veterans, the Come Back Alive Foundation, Stratcom Ukraine and the Invictus NGO.

Ukraine’s medals at the Invictus Games 2023

• Gold medals: Oleksandr Makovei (athletics, shot put, IF8), Mykola Zaritskyi (athletics, shot put, IF1 + rowing on simulators, endurance, IR5), Nazar Vozniuk (indoor rowing, endurance, IR2 + swimming, 100 m, freestyle, ISC + 50 m, backstroke, ISC + 50 m, freestyle, ISC), Volodymyr Tovkis (indoor rowing, endurance, IR3 + sprint, IR3), Yulia Shevchuk (archery, beginners), Pavlo Luchkiv (archery, open category), Volodymyr Tovkis, Maksym Zubov and Vadym Maznichenko (classical archery, beginners, mixed-sex sports).
• Silver medals: Mykola Zaritskyi (athletics, discus throw, IF1 + indoor rowing, sprint, IR5), Maksym Zubov (powerlifting, IP6), Volodymyr Hera (athletics, discus throw, IF7), Maksym Dmytrash (athletics, long jump, IJ5 + indoor rowing, sprint, IR6), Yulia Shevchuk (indoor rowing, endurance, IR5 + sprint, IR5), Ivan Moldun (indoor rowing, sprint, IR2 + swimming, 50 m, breaststroke, ISB ), Oleg Dolzhok (indoor rowing, sprint, IR3), Nazar Vozniuk (indoor rowing, sprint, IR4), Yuliya Paevska (swimming, 50 m, freestyle, ISD), Nazar Vozniuk, Oleksandr Ponomariov, Ihor Derman and Yevhenii Kireyonok (swimming, 4×50 m relay, freestyle).
• Bronze medals: Volodymyr Tovkis (athletics, discus throw, IF2), Vitaly Borodavka (athletics, 100 m run, IT7(O)), Dmytro Polovian (swimming, 50 m, backstroke, ISB + 50 m, breaststroke, ISB), Oleksandr Budko (swimming, 50 m, freestyle, ISB), Yaryna Alimanova (cycling, criterium, IRB3(M)), Vadym Maznichenko (classic bow, beginners), Yulia Paevska (archery, open category).

Invictus Games

The Invictus Games were launched in 2014 by Britain’s Prince Harry. The first Games were held in the same year at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.

For the first time, Ukraine received the right to participate in the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto as a NATO ally in peacekeeping operations around the world, as well as through the Joint Forces Operation in eastern Ukraine.

The Games Foundation increased the quota for the Ukrainian team in the Invictus Games from 15 to 20 people in 2020.

This happened due to the high level of organization and popularity of the competition in Ukraine.