Rio 2016 Paralympics. Story Two: Life Is A Struggle, And It’s Exciting

What You Need To Know:

✅ The 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio start on September 7;
✅ 172 athletes, 17 more than last year, will represent Ukraine. This is because the Russian Paralympic team was banned from participating in the Games;
✅ Wheelchair fencer Evgenia Breus will participate as a part of Ukraine’s National Paralympic Team.

Evgenia is from Mykolaiv but currently lives in Kharkiv. She suffered an injury at the age of 8 when she lost her left leg. She started wheelchair fencing at the age of 28 and won her first gold medal at the World Championship in September 2015 . This year at the European Championship in Italy she won bronze in the individual all-around event and gold in the team event.

“Life is a struggle, and it’s exciting. It has a lot of exciting moments and you need to love life,” says the sportswoman.

Hromadske launches a special project about Ukrainian Paralympic athletes in order to tell their personal stories. Hromadske's Kateryna Kunytska spoke to Evgenia Breus about the difficulties of training, her sport, life choices and much more.