Lost his legs and found the strength to be reborn: the story of a Paralympian who won a historic medal for Ukraine

At the Paralympic Games held in Paris in September, Ukraine won its first medal in the men's overall. A 38-year-old athlete from Lviv region, Pavlo Bal, won the bronze medal in the group race. At the age of 30, the man lost his legs in a terrible accident. Despairing after the injury, Pavlo didn't even want to leave the house, but later he got into big sports and now covers hundreds of kilometers every day in training.

The athlete told his story of rebirth in an interview with OBOZ.UA.

The golden rule is not to leave an injured person alone

Pavlo Bal is a native of the village of Khorosnytsia, Lviv region. His childhood was spent in the village, followed by school, the army, and higher education, and eventually, he went to work in Poland.

A man was involved in an accident abroad, after which he underwent a high amputation of both legs. Pavlo became disabled at a young age and did not know what to do with his life. According to the athlete, most of the injured go through similar emotions.

"Depression is very common in such cases. If the amputation is above the knees, and even two legs, it is already a problem. What can we say about the arms! If we take serious injuries, when people sit in a wheelchair and their physical condition fatally deteriorates, they become really limited (and in our country, they are really limited). The financial situation is also important: if you have nothing, and you also have a disability, it is a very difficult situation," the man says.

Pavlo was saved by his family and friends. He was also helped by his fellow villagers, who raised money for him and tried to be there for him.

"A friend would come and take me on his shoulders, put me in the car, and take me for walks. I was not allowed to be alone with my problem. This is important: those who have received a disability should be returned to society and involved in some kind of activity," the interviewee assures.

After his wounds healed, the man set himself the goal of learning to use prostheses, but unfortunately, with a high amputation like his, walking on prostheses proved to be an extremely difficult task.

"I had great hope for prostheses. I tried, I even took a few steps, but I have no stump at all, I have nothing to even take a step with. Perhaps some biomechanics are done in the US or Germany, but it costs a fortune," says Pavlo.

I was like a vegetable

But later, almost spontaneously, sports appeared in his life.

"I didn't want to do anything at all. I was like a vegetable. But I was encouraged to do winter sports. I tried it, and I liked it," says the athlete.

Pavlo started out in biathlon and cross-country skiing, but then the question arose: what to do next? To continue developing in sports without the guarantee of earning a living or finding a job to provide for the family.

"My wife and I sat down in the kitchen to decide what to do next: whether I should pursue sports seriously or get a job. We decided that I would go in for sports. At least I would try," Pavlo recalls.

The attempt was not in vain: after a year of training in 2019, Pavlo joined the national team. The man does not consider his result a phenomenon, as he has always had a strong physique and even before his injury he loved to go to the mountains and ski.

In 2022, the athlete went to his first-ever Paralympics in Beijing. He returned to Ukraine, which was engulfed in a "great" war.

"I wanted to go to the United States. But my wife did not want to go anywhere. She wanted to plant tomatoes and cultivate the garden in the village," the man laughs.

From skiing to cycling

Staying in Ukraine, the athlete began to look for new opportunities for professional development. Cycling caught his attention. Even before the full-scale invasion, Pavlo was fond of training on a hand bike that a craftsman had made especially for him.

"I could ride it and train on it, but it was not competitive," he explains.

A professional handmade bike costs 15 thousand euros, and it's individually handmade. The bike is also carbon fiber, which is an expensive material. But it was too expensive for Pavlo. The local authorities and his godfather helped him raise the money for his first professional customization. So the man began to realize his dream.

A typical workout starts with the help of his wife: she takes the bike outside, and then Pavlo comes down. He doesn't need any special conditions – just asphalt and minimal traffic.

On average, the man covers 80 kilometers in three hours a day. If the training is long, Pavlo can cover more than 100 kilometers a day. Before the Paralympics in Paris, for which he trained in the mountains in Italy, he was able to do even more.

"If on average I cover 300-340 kilometers in a week, then before the Paralympics I covered 500 kilometers in a week," he recalls.

For an ordinary cyclist, such distances are the working norm. However, in the case of a handcyclist, when you have to pedal with your hands, 100 kilometers a day is a challenge that not everyone can handle.

"My hands get clogged and hurt. Then you need to go for massages and shock wave therapy," says the source.

The tactic that brought him a medal

Upon arriving in Paris, Pavlo realized that he had a chance only for the Paralympic bronze medal in the men's general skate, as the gold and silver medals were almost guaranteed to be reserved for rivals from the Netherlands and France, who had been competing in this discipline for many years. However, the bronze medal was still to be won, as the rivals from China and Portugal were no less strong.

However, thanks to the right tactics, the Ukrainian athlete was able to get on the podium.

In the first race, Pavlo's rivals gave it their all, and our hero decided to save his strength for the group race that was to take place the next day. It was the ski slopes that made a difference: in cycling, two races in a row are not so common, but in biathlon and skiing, it is a normal practice.

However, the winning race itself turned out to be quite dramatic.

"There was a pileup at the first turn: the guys ran into each other. And before that, at the beginning of the season in Belgium, I fell during a race and flipped over at 52 kilometers per hour. Therefore, having this experience, I was very careful and safe in the turns, plus the track was slippery. I coped with it, but my rivals did not," said Pavlo.

After the bronze medal in Paris, the athlete received prize money from the state ($55,000) and managed to win another bronze medal at the World Cycling Championships in Zurich, which took place in late September. Now the athlete is preparing for the new winter season in biathlon and skiing.

"The winter season is ahead, and I need to have a successful one, and the Winter Paralympics in Italy are just around the corner, and I need to prepare for them," the source said.

According to the athlete, it is an extraordinary honor for him to represent Ukraine.

"You are the face of the country. Everyone looks up to you. I'm proud to have the opportunity to represent the country at world-class sporting events," says Pavlo Bal.

You can get help for Ukrainians with disabilities on the website of the EnableMe Ukraine organization. You can ask an expert a question and get free help in the EnableMe community.