This is the eighth award for Ukrainian athletes at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Khizhnyak won a gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
With our partner Favbet, we follow and root for Ukrainian Olympic team.
In the final fight in the weight category up to 80 kg, the 29-year-old “Poltava Tank” defeated the 24-year-old Kazakh Nurbek Oralbay by a split decision of the judges – 3:2.
From the opening bell, Khizhnyak actively went forward to his opponent and threw a large number of punches. The opponent tried to respond, but the Ukrainian won the first round on the scorecards of the majority of judges (3:2).
In the second round, the Kazakh evened out the situation in the ring and won on the scorecards of three of the five referees (3:2), so after two rounds the score was equal.
However, in the decisive third round, Alexander became fully involved and gave all his strength so that the judges would have no doubts about the winner of the fight. And it worked. The Ukrainian took the last round, and with it the Olympic gold.
For Khizhnyak, this is the second Olympic award in his career and the first gold; at the 2020 Games in Tokyo he was a silver medalist. Then Alexander reached the final in the weight category up to 75 kg, but in the fight for “gold” he lost by knockout to Brazilian Herbert Souza.
Khizhnyak is the only one of the three Ukrainian boxers who finished the 2024 Olympics with a medal. The other two of our compatriots dropped out at the start of the competition: Dmytro Lovchinsky (weight over 92 kg) lost by knockout, and Ayder Abduraimov (weight up to 57 kg) lost by unanimous decision.
Khizhnyak's medal was the eighth for Ukraine at the current Olympics. Now the “blue-yellows” have three gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
Another medal, at least a silver one, was guaranteed for Ukraine by Greco-Roman wrestler Parviz Nasibov, who reached the final. The fight for “gold” with his participation will take place on Thursday, August 8. On the same day, another representative of our country in Greco-Roman wrestling, Zhan Beleniuk, after a defeat in the semi-finals, will fight for the bronze medal.
Ukraine is represented at the XXXIII Summer Olympics by 140 athletes who compete in 23 sports. The Games in Paris will last until August 11.
All the most interesting events of the Olympics can be found in the line of the Ukrainian licensed bookmaker Favbet.