Ukraine's national team wins the International Games for War Veterans in Madrid

For the first time, the Ukrainian Strongman Federation initiated and organised a global competition involving veterans of the armies of various allied countries. The tournament in October, called the Strong Spiritʼs Games, brought together 80 participants from 5 countries (in addition to Ukraine, veterans from the United States, Estonia, Ireland and the Netherlands) who competed in 5 different disciplines: bench press, rowing, kettlebell lifting and airbike.

Madrid was chosen as the venue for the international veterans' meeting for a reason. For six years in a row, the Ukrainian Strongman Federation has been organising European and World Championships on behalf of the International Strongman Federation. The strongmen competition was held as part of the annual Arnold Classic Europe sports festival.

Last year, the FSU already made the first important step towards the implementation of veteran competitions in the Arnold Classic Games programme by organising a successful attempt to set a world record in Madrid, when eight Ukrainian heroes on prostheses pulled four coupled trucks weighing more than 35 tonnes. It was a kind of rehearsal, and the big premiere took place this year. The inclusion of the new type of programme in the sports festival was agreed with the author and winner of the competition, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and at the opening of the Strong Spirit's Games, the main European organiser, Arnold Classic, and the president of the International Bodybuilding Federation, Rafael Santoja, delivered a welcoming speech and thanked Ukraine for defending democratic values.

As you know, the United States of America has a veterans' competition called the Warriors Games, and the world has the Invictus Games, in which Ukrainian military veterans regularly participate.

The Strongman Federation of Ukraine has realised its ambitious plan by continuing the logical chain of domestic tournaments with qualification for the international Veterans Games.

During this year, a total of about 1,500 veterans took part in ten all-Ukrainian tournaments held in different cities of our country. In these tournaments, the participants gained points, forming rankings in competitive categories according to their injuries.

‘During the year, we held a series of competitions in the regions of Ukraine, and the final of the national selection took place in Bukovel. Then a national team of 50 veterans was formed to represent our country at the international level. We are grateful to TC ‘Bukovel’, because the participation of our guys in international competitions was made possible thanks to the resort's general partnership. As well as the national selection - I hope this will become a good tradition of cooperation for such an important initiative for Ukraine,’ comments Serhiy Konyushok, President of the Strongman Federation.

The general media partners of the project are 1+1 media and UNIAN.

The national team of Ukraine confidently won the overall standings of the Strong Spirit's Games. The second place went to military veterans from the United States, and the bronze cup went to former soldiers from Estonia.