Author: Ihor Stelmach

Elina Svitolina returned to the WTA’s Top 10 and climbed to the top of the Porsche Race to Singapore leaderboard as a result of winning her eighth career title at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (Italian Open) on May 21. In the tournament final she finally defeated former world No. 2 Simona Halep of Romania, 4-6,...

Heading into the 12-round heavyweight contest on April 19 with the IBF, IBO and WBA world titles on the line, 27-year-old British boxer Anthony Joshua was the overwhelming favorite with the bookmakers because of his undeniable talent and surrounding hype. His opponent, Wladimir Klitschko, should not have been underestimated while on a mission to reclaim...

It was an unprecedented North American sporting event when the inaugural fight card at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md., on April 8 featured three professional Ukrainian boxers – Vasyl Lomachenko, Oleksandr Usyk and Oleksandr Gvozdyk. The main event had WBO super featherweight (junior lightweight) champion Lomachenko against Jason Sosa of the U.S.A., preceded...

How Gretzky became an Oiler  Wayne Gretzky was named one of “The NHL’s 100,” the top 100 players in the history of the National Hockey League’s 100 years of existence. This is the first in a series featuring the six Ukrainian hockey stars selected to this elite group. On August 9, 1988, the Edmonton Oilers...

Svitolina achieves top-10 ranking The start of a new tennis season and a coaching change could not derail Elina Svitolina’s momentum from last year’s success on the courts. Svitolina’s ambition to build on her achievements in 2016, when she became the first woman since 2010 to beat two top-ranked women in the same year, Serena...

Bozak a centerpiece in Toronto The past off-season saw a lot of changes in the Toronto Maple Leafs line-up with their recent successful drafts creating an influx of several top prospects. Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner, to name three, have the club trending away from league doormats to potential playoff contenders. It also...

Alex Len standing tall in Phoenix Alex Len averaged a very respectable 12.5 points and 10 rebounds per game for his Phoenix Suns from the All-Star break through the end of the 2015-2016 season. One could easily discount the statistics as a product of a losing team trying to develop a young big man, but...

Three Ukrainians selected in first round of 2016 NHL draft The theme of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft held in Buffalo, N.Y., on June 24-25 was first-round Ukrainian bloodlines. Matthew Tkachuk, son of Keith Tkachuk, Jakob Chychrun, son of Jeff Chychrun, and Kieffer Bellows, son of Brian Bellows, were all selected in the first round...

In the international sports competition arena these days, the United States, Russia, China and Great Britain are almost always atop the leader board. Every four years the above four countries rule the medals tables at the Olympics and Paralympics. The last dozen years have seen one underdog nation turn into a world superpower once the...

Ukraine sent a team composed of 155 athletes, its largest ever squad, to the 2016 Rio Paralympics. The Ukrainian team is participating in 14 out of 22 sports. The sports include rowing, sitting volleyball, judo, table tennis, power lifting, swimming, archery, wheelchair fencing, football seven-a-side, road cycling, track cycling, paracanoe and goalball. Ukraine is debuting...

The United States led the way with 121 medals won at the 2016 Rio Olympics. China (70), Great Britain (67) and Russia (56) rounded out the top four. Next were Germany, France, Japan, Australia and Italy. Ukraine ranked 22nd out of 207 participating nations, finishing amid countries like Poland, Jamaica, Cuba and Uzbekistan. This year’s...

The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 5-21 will be Ukraine’s sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics in the post-Soviet era. In London at the 2012 Olympics, Ukraine won a total of 20 medals (six gold, five silver and nine bronze) – its lowest in Summer Olympic history since the...