Ukraine’s Olena Starikova has won silver at the women’s sprint cycling finals, earning Ukraine its 6th Olympic silver medal.
Starikova had surged to the sprint finals after unexpectedly defeating Olympic favourite and 2020 world champion, Lea Freidrich of Germany, in the quarter finals of the tournament.
Finishing just 0.064 seconds behind gold medal winner Canadian Kelsey Mitchell in the second race, Starikova will be heading home with the first Olympic medal of her career. Starikova had previously won gold at the 2020 Plovdiv European Championships in the Keirin discipline.
The Kharkiv-born cyclist had previously struggled with injury in her career; however, she has bounced back to an impressive Olympic performance. Starikova was named the Best Female Athlete in Lviv in 2019 and was awarded the Order of Princess Olga third class for her achievements at the 2019 European Games in Minsk, Belarus.
Starikova’s silver is Ukraine’s 19th medal of the event, meaning that Ukraine now ranks 16th in terms of total medals won at the 2020 Olympics.
Aug. 8 is the final day of the 2020 Olympics. In total, 157 athletes have represented Ukraine at the Olympics. Ukraine has won medals in shooting, fencing, swimming, tennis, wrestling, rowing, karate, high jump, canoeing, and boxing.
