Oleksandra Kononova
Oleksandra Kononova in Sochi, 2014
Full nameOleksandra Mykolaivna Kononova
Born (1991-02-27) 27 February 1991
Kyiv region, Ukraine
Medal record
Representing  Ukraine
Winter Paralympics
Women's para biathlon
Silver medal – second place2022 Beijing10 km standing
Women's para cross-country skiing
Gold medal – first place2022 Beijing10 km standing

Oleksandra Mykolaivna Kononova (Ukrainian: Олександра Миколаївна Кононова, born 27 February 1991)[1] is a Ukrainian Paralympic skier. She won three medals at the 2010 Paralympics and became the 2010 Ukrainian sports personality of the year.

Personal life

Kononova was born in Brovary in 1991. She had a condition when she was a young child that meant that her right arm did not develop as well as her other arm.[2] Kononova was an orphan[3] brought up by her grandmother. When she was ten she met some youths who were using in-line roller skates. Kononova came from a poor background, she was bullied due to her disability and remembered being unhappy. She found out that the people she had met in the park were not roller skaters but a team training using skates for cross-country skiing. She decided to take up the sport.[2]

Career

Training on skates during the spring and summer seasons she found that her disability did not effect her ability to succeed at skiing and she was achieving national positions by the time she was eighteen.[2] Her first trainer was Anatoliy Zadvineyev.[3]

When Kononova was nineteen she was chosen to travel from her home in Kyiv Oblast to represent her country at the paralympics in Canada. She was part of a Ukrainian team who had been fourth at the last paralympics and who hoped to better their position. Kononova won a gold medal for the Ukraine in the standing biathlon at the Paralympic games in Vancouver in 2010. She competed at the games as the reigning world champion. Kononova won the best debut at the games[4] adding to the nineteen medals that the Ukraine took in Vancouver.[3]

She won three gold medals and a silver medal at the 2010 Paralympics and became the 2010 Ukrainian sports personality of the year. She won significant prize money from the Ukrainian government and was credited with assisting in changing the Ukrainian's attitudes to disability in general.[2]

Kononova competed at the IPC Nordic Biathlon World Cup in Vuokatti in Finland in 2014.[5] On the final day of the World Cup she was the only non-Russian to claim a gold medal.[6] She was in the Ukrainian biathlon team at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

She won the gold medal in the women's 6 km standing biathlon event at the 2021 World Para Snow Sports Championships held in Lillehammer, Norway.[7][8] She also won the bronze medal in the women's 10 km standing biathlon event.[9][10]

References

  1. ↑ Кононова Олександра Миколаївна [Oleksandra Mykolaivna Kononova] (in Ukrainian). paralympic.org.ua. 8 March 2010. Archived from the original on 8 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "2010 the year in review Ukrainian sports personality of the year: Paralympics sensation Oleksandra Kononova". Business Ukraine Online. December 2010. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 The Faces of Ukraine, Ukrainian week, December 2010, retrieved 14 February 2014
  4. ↑ Best Games Debut, Paralympics.org, retrieved 14 February 2014
  5. ↑ Short Distance Night Biathlon Opens IPC World Cup at Oberried, Luc Percial, January 2013, retrieved 14 February 2014
  6. ↑ Competition concludes in Vuokatti with yet more success for Russian skiers, 12 January 2014, Gary Anderson, retrieved 14 February 2014
  7. ↑ Houston, Michael (15 January 2022). "Russians take biathlon golds at World Para Snow Sports Championships". InsideTheGames.biz. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  8. ↑ "Clean podium sweeps for RPC and Ukraine on Para biathlon's opening day". Paralympic.org. 15 January 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  9. ↑ "Belarus' Yury Holub reigns supreme for second gold medal despite icy slip". Paralympic.org. 16 January 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  10. ↑ Houston, Michael (16 January 2022). "Russian trio win again in biathlon at the World Para Snow Sports Championships". InsideTheGames.biz. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
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