On Friday, February 6, the XXV Winter Olympics will commence in Italy.

The grand opening ceremony will take place at the renowned «San Siro» stadium in Milan, as reported by Ukrinform.

From February 6 to 22, over 4,000 athletes from 96 nations will compete in 16 sports and contend for 116 sets of medals.

Ukraine will be represented by 46 athletes competing in 11 sports: biathlon, luge, freestyle, skeleton, short track, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, alpine skiing, ski jumping, snowboarding, and figure skating.

It is noteworthy that since gaining independence, Ukraine has won 9 medals at the Winter Olympics:

3 «gold» medals:

• Lillehammer 1994 - Oksana Baiul - figure skating, ladies’ singles;
• Sochi 2014 - Vita Semerenko, Yuliya Dzhima, Valentina Semerenko, Olena Pidhushna - biathlon, relay;
• Pyeongchang 2018 - Oleksandr Abramenko - freestyle, ski acrobatics.

3 «silver» medals:

• Nagano 1998 - Olena Petrova - biathlon, individual race;
• Sochi 2014 - Vita Semerenko - biathlon, sprint;
• Beijing 2022 - Oleksandr Abramenko - freestyle, ski acrobatics.

3 «bronze» medals:

• Lillehammer 1994 - Valentina Tserbe-Nesina - biathlon, sprint;
• Turin 2006 - Liliya Yefremova - biathlon, sprint;
• Olena Grushina / Ruslan Goncharov - figure skating, ice dance.