Ukraine’s second gold medal at the London Olympics is the first in rowing in the history of this country

The Day before yesterday, July 31, Ukraine won a second gold medal at the London Olympics, this time in the women’s quadruple sculls (Kateryna Tarasenko, Natalia Dovhodko, Anastasia Kozhenkova, and Yana Dementieva). Coming off to a flying start, the Ukrainian athletes maintained a sure lead throughout the 2,000-m distance. The silver medal went to Germany and the bronze to the US. As we go to press, Ukraine is 10th in the overall team ranking – with two gold and two bronze medals. Russia ranks 9th (2 gold, 2 silver, and 5 bronze medals), while China so far remains an undisputed leader of the Olympics, having won 23 medals (13 gold, 6 silver, and 4 bronze).

“We haven’t yet had Olympic champions in rowing! We’ve had silver and bronze medalists, and this is the first time Ukraine won the gold in this sport. Incidentally, Ukrainian rowers, both men and women, had never become Olympic champions not only in the years of independence but also in the Soviet era,” Yurii RODIONOV, ex-chief coach of Ukraine’s rowing team, vice-president of the Rowing Federation of Ukraine, Merited Coach of Ukraine, told The Day. “I can see no good luck in this result, for the crew systematically and steadily marched to victory. It took the coaches four years to train the girls for the Olympic Games, during which time the current crew won a world championship, all the World Cup stages, and did not lose even one regatta. I will say more: the coaches expected this gold medal. The only thing we feared before the heat was that the girls were psychologically unprepared for such a high-level performance. I am glad they confirmed that they are the strongest!”

P.S. As we were going to press, Olena Kostevych won another bronze medal for Ukraine in the women’s 25-m pistol.