Ukrainian Paralympic Swim Team Ranked Number One in the European Championships

KYIV, Ukraine, July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Holding the top position since the very start of the Berlin 2011 International Paralympic Committee Swimming European Championships, the Ukrainian national team became a winner with an overall result of 105 awards total, including 41 gold, 37 silver, and 27 bronze medals. Followed by the UK with 27 gold medals and the cumulative score of 83 awards, the Ukrainian team has become a confident leader of the competition.

The Ukrainian team broke 18 records in Women's and Men's 50m Freestyle, Men's 50m Butterfly, Women's 100m and 200m Freestyle, Women's and Men's 100m Breaststroke, Men's 200m Individual Medley, Women's 4x50m Medley and Freestyle Relay 20pt, and Women's 50m Backstroke. The Ukrainian Yevheniy Bohodayko is the top competitor in the Championships with eight gold and two silver medals.

Lasting between July 3^rd and July 10^th, 2011, The Berlin 2011 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Swimming European Championships became the biggest ever event in the history of such Championships, hosting 433 athletes from 36 competing countries.

The organizers as well as the sports community are taking the Championships seriously. "They [European Championships] are one of the last major international gatherings of swimmers before the London 2012 Paralympics," said the IPC Media and Communications Senior Manager Craig Spence.

The Berlin 2011 IPC Swimming European Championships took place at Berlin's Europasportpark - a go-to venue for multiple aquatic events, including the International Open German Swimming Championships.

Ukrainian paralympic sport emerged in Ukraine in 1989 when the first sports clubs for the physically challenged were established. Later, the clubs turned into national sports federations, uniting people with vision problems, hearing disabilities, intellectual disability, and locomotor disorders. In 1992 these four federations joined in the National Sports Committee for the Disabled of Ukraine.

Currently, the National Sports Committee for the Disabled of Ukraine represents the country at the international paralympic and deaflympic movements and fulfills the functions of the National Paralympic Committee. The International Paralympic Committee, as well as the International Organizations of Sport for the Disabled, named the dynamic of the Ukrainian paralympic movement to be the fastest in Europe over the last four years.