Ukrainian Paralympian Pavel Bal emotionally commented on the result of the 20 km cross-country skiing race at the 2026 Paralympics, where he was one step away from the award. The athlete unequivocally answered that it was worse for him to be left without a medal than to be on the podium next to the representative of Russia.
Bal finished fourth in the sitting class competition. He was separated from bronze by 11.5 seconds.
In a commentary for Suspilne Sport Bal, he stated that he did not consider the presence of the Russians a reason to refuse the medal, emphasizing: “Those Russians went to hell, the stink is gone.”.
He added that in the case of third place, he would have calmly taken his award and “sent him to hell,” noting that the main thing for him is to win medals, but this time “it didn’t work out today.”.
Bal is one of the most experienced Ukrainian Paralympians. At the 2026 Games in Italy, he won silver in the mixed relay in para skiing, becoming the first representative of Ukraine to win medals at both the Winter and Summer Paralympic Games.
Pavel Bal was born in the Lviv region. In his youth, he went to work in Poland, where he was involved in a traffic accident and, after severe injuries, suffered high amputation of both legs.
Support from family and friends helped him return to an active life. At first, the athlete tried to walk with prostheses, but due to the complexity of this process, he began to engage in sports: biathlon and cross-country skiing, and later switched to cycling on a hand bicycle.
At the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, Bal won bronze in handbike cycling.. He later won another bronze at the World Cycling Championships in Zurich.
From 2005 to 2006, Bal served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the airborne forces. Later, from 2013 to 2016, he worked in the State Security Service.
The athlete received an injury in 2017, after which he began cross-country skiing in 2018. In winter disciplines, he won bronze in the mixed relay at the 2019 World Cup, and at the 2021 World Championships he won two golds: in the mixed relay in cross-country skiing and in the individual biathlon race.