Golden marathon

Ihar Boki is rewriting the history of Paralympic sports

Ihar Boki, an ordinary guy from Bobruisk, has become a true legend of Paralympic sports. At the Paralympic Games taking place in Paris these days, the 30-year-old athlete knew no equal and rose to the highest step of the podium four times, having won the 100-metre butterfly and backstroke, the 400-metre freestyle, as well as the 50-metre freestyle S13. In total, the prominent Belarusian swimmer now has 22 Paralympic awards in his collection — 20 gold medals, one silver and one bronze. That is a stunning result!   

Belarusian swimmer, Ihar Boki 

President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko has congratulated Belarusian swimmer Ihar Boki on the gold medal earned during the 2024 Summer Paralympics, sb.by reports with reference to the Belarusian leader’s press service

“Thanks to your brilliant victories and records, you are already on a par with the most famous Paralympians on the planet, proving again and again that there are no obstacles on the way to Olympus for an outstanding sports talent. We are proud of you, we cheer for you and look forward to new victories,” the congratulatory message reads. Aleksandr Lukashenko wished the athlete strong health, peace, good spirits and inexhaustible energy.

Ihar became a Paralympian due to serious vision problems. “For as long as I can remember, I have always been prescribed glasses because of high degree myopia. When I reached adolescence, visual acuity devices showed from –17 to –19. Without correction, the picture is extremely blurred, I can only see some outlines of objects and a bit of colour,” the athlete recounted. He started swimming as a 6-year-old boy and after some time, the first results appeared. However, in the same period, the doctors issued their harsh and inexorable verdict: high-performance sports are contraindicated! The doctors associated the drastic deterioration of vision with the rapid development of the body — in the sixth grade, the guy grew to 190 cm, and has grown only a couple of centimetres since then. All his dreams of great sporting glory almost collapsed overnight.
In Paralympic sports, Ihar Boki works with coach Gennady Vishnyakov. They first met in the swimming pool in 2008. The mentor recalled that moment, “Even though he was still weak back then, as a professional coach, I saw him as a swimmer with a capital letter. When it turned out that Ihar had vision problems, we decided to practice the Paralympic programme. The first two years of training were very gentle, and after the athlete got stronger, we began to work more efficiently and professionally. The most remarkable thing about Ihar is his character. In a difficult moment, he knows how to concentrate and achieve maximum mobilisation — the stronger the opponents, the higher it is. He is not afraid of anyone and is always ready to fight to the last metre of the distance.”
In Paris, Ihar Boki has proved this once again.

By Sergei Kanashits