On the 26th of June, 11.30 a. m., an agreement between VOLIA and the National Committee of Sports for Disabled Persons of Ukraine (NCSDP) was signed at the UNIAN news agency. According to this agreement, VOLIA becomes an official sponsor of the National Paralympics summer sports team at the 13th Paralympics in Beijing and is an official sponsor of the NCSDP.
In 2008 the National Paralympics team of Ukraine will be represented in 11 sports (track and field, swimming, fencing on wheelchairs, archery, ICP soccer, shooting, rowing and canoeing, power-lifting, ping-pong, sedentary volley-ball (women), and judo) in Beijing. Rowing and canoeing and shooting are two new sports to take part in for the Ukrainian Paralympics national team, which obtained 104 licenses. It means that 125 sportsmen will definitely participate in the Paralympic Games-2008.
A solemn ceremony dedicated to the Ukrainian National Paralympics team send-off was held August 5. A state flag of Ukraine was handed over to a flag-bearer of the Ukrainian National Paralympics team, fencer Andriy Komar from Nikolaiev, by the Prime-Minister of Ukraine. The viewers rose in applause, giving credit to ineradicable will-power, as the sportsmen appeared at the stage.
The Opening of the Paralympic Games is going to take place September 6, 2008 in Beijing. The competition should take place from September 7 to September 16. The closing of the Paralympic Games will be held September 17.
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‘Invasport' Physical Education and Sports Center for Disabled of Ukraine and its 27 regional detachments were established in 1993. They all serve for introduction of state policy on the issues of physical education and sports for disabled persons in Ukraine.
Valeriy Sushkevych was elected as President of the NCSDP in December 1996. His social activity and strong intensions in the field of physical education, as well as support of the like-minded persons served as a start for the sports movement of disabled persons in Ukraine. He is a two-times swimming champion of the USSR among disabled persons, active participant of the Paralimpic sports in shooting, power-lifting, and downhill. His slogan saying «From sport success to victories in life!» became a life's credo for disabled sportsmen of Ukraine.
This is joint activity of the National Sports Committee for Disabled Persons of Ukraine and the Invasport state system that played a significant role in physical education and sports development for disabled in our country. The branched infrastructure of physical education and sports for disabled allows attracting handicapped persons to actively go in for sports.
Nowadays Ukraine shows the highest pace in sports development for disabled in Europe, the International Paralympics Committee reports. Last year the amount of participants in various rehabilitation and sports activities comprised more than 52 thousand persons with defective hearing, eyesight, as well as locomotorium impaired people, ICP, those with mental disabilities and corporals. They have an opportunity to be engaged in 30 sports. More than 250 championships, tournaments, and cups in 19 sports are held annually.
