Alexander was overwhelmed with emotions at the awards ceremony.
On the night of August 8, Ukrainian boxer Alexander Khizhnyak won a gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, triumphing in the weight category up to 80 kg.
In the final, the 29-year-old “Poltava Tank” in an extremely difficult fight by split decision (3:2) defeated Kazakhstani Nurbek Oralbay, who is the current world champion.
After the end of the competition, the award ceremony took place. Khizhnyak received his “gold”, and during the performance of the Ukrainian anthem he could not hold back his tears. Watch the video of this touching moment.
It should be noted that the Ukrainian anthem was played for the third time at these Olympics. The first time this happened was when our sabre fencers won gold in the team tournament. And for the second time in honor of the awarding of the newly-minted Olympic champion in high jump Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who was also joined on the podium by bronze medalist Irina Gerashchenko.
For Khizhnyak, this is the second Olympic award in his career and the first gold; he won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Then, Oleksandr reached the final in the 75 kg weight category, but lost by knockout to Brazilian Herbert Souza in the fight for gold.
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. With this result, Ukraine occupies 17th place in the medal standings.
Greco-Roman wrestler Parviz Nasibov, who reached the final, guaranteed Ukraine another medal, at least a silver one. 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.
