Young Ukrainian gymnast wins gold medal after losing leg in Russian missile strike
A seven-year-old Ukrainian girl who lost her leg during a Russian missile strike on Odesa Oblast in May 2022 has returned to competition with a prosthesis and won a gold medal.
Ukrainian gymnast and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Anna Rizatdinova wrote on Instagram on June 4 about the young athlete, Oleksandra Paskal, who came first in a rhythmic gymnastics competition.
The Russians launched a missile strike at a recreation center in the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district, Odesa Oblast, early on May 16, 2022, resulting in the girl ending up under the rubble of the facility.
Paskal had an open fracture of her arm, fractures of four ribs, a head injury, multiple shrapnel wounds, while a concrete slab that fell on her legs shattered all the bones.
The girl had been in a medically induced coma for 15 days, and after many months of treatment, she underwent rehabilitation in Austria, where she learned to walk again after being given a prosthetic leg.
The Ukrainian gymnast returned to training in March 2023.
“Ukraine is you,” Rizatdinova wrote.
“You have all the strength, all the will and all our inner world. It’s impossible not to be proud of you! This entry alone, this victory alone is worth all our medals at the Olympics during the years of independence. Unfortunately, I have to write that it’s hard for me to imagine the pain, disappointment and suffering you went through to get this victory. I cannot but express my admiration for your feat. I know how hard it is for every victory of every female athlete in our sport. But I can only imagine the effort it cost you. Thank you, thank you for inspiring and teaching all of us to rejoice every day, every victory! Also, a low bow to Oleksandra’s mother! Thank you for a real female champion and an example for us all.”
Rizatdinova also appealed to Russian athletes.
“I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to all female athletes from Russia and Belarus who have lost the gift of speech, in particular to (Belarusian tennis player) Aryna Sabalenka, who is afraid to look into the eyes even of journalists and hides from press conferences at (the French Open) #rollangarros,” she said.
“Maybe you’ll be worth at least 1% of this brave little girl and start talking before the ‘Russian world’ comes to your house and starts taking away the lives of your children? Have you still not understood that it won’t do to remain silent and sit by?”
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