Ukrainian badminton player chasing first Paralympic medal with an unexpected guest in the stands

PARIS (AP) - Oksana Kozyna's Paralympic debut was sure to have some unexpected moments, but the surprise she received last week might beat anything that could have happened on the court.

The Ukrainian para badminton player was raised in an orphanage for disabled children in Dnipro, Ukraine, alongside teammate Oleksandr Chyrkov. Before her first singles match in the SL3 classification (standing with lower limb impairment), she met one of her former teachers at the orphanage - a reunion that brought back memories of learning the sport while also featuring all the emotions felt by Ukrainians as the war continues back home.

"I didn't recognize her at first and then, when I recognized her, I just couldn't believe it," Kozyna said of her teacher, Svitlana Shabalina, while meeting with reporters Sunday evening. "It's like a dream."

Shabalina had left the orphanage years earlier and recently emigrated to Sweden. Kozyna fled Ukraine shortly after Russia attacked in 2022 and now lives with Chyrkov, two other Ukrainian athletes and their families in France, where she trained for the Paralympics.

Kozyna has been a key player in Ukrainian para badminton since winning silver at the European Championships in 2017. The 29-year-old also won Ukraine's first world para badminton championship in 2022.

Shabalina did not plan to see her former students. Chyrkov actually surprised Shabalina while training near where she lives in Sweden. The two had stayed in touch in the years after Chyrkov left the orphanage, and he invited Shabalina to watch him and Kozyna compete. Two weeks before the games began, Shabalina decided to go.

"Ever since we began the war, we've tried to figure out how to do it in a proper way," Chyrkov said. "It really helped because a lot of Ukrainians came and supported."

Kozyna said the trio has spent the last few days discussing how life has changed since they left the orphanage. Kozyna had not seen Shabalina since before the war began.

Kozyna had her first women's singles loss on Sunday, falling in straight sets to No. 1 seed Qonitah Ikhtiar Syakuroh of Indonesia. She will play Nigerian Mariam Bolaji for the bronze medal on Monday.

"I did have favorite pupils, (and) they were one of them," Shabalina said about Kozyna and Chyrkov. "I loved what I do and my kids, because I really think they are like my kids."

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Jack Leo is a student in the undergraduate certificate program at the Carmical Institute of Sports Media at the University of Georgia.

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AP Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games