SSL Team UKR – By Sailors for Sailors

THE FOOTBALL WORLD CUP... IN SAILING

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS | 14-17 July 2026 | Grandson, Switzerland

FINALS | 15 Nov - 13 Dec 2026 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Events

Replay

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS 2

G1 - Race 1

11:00

14 July 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

UKR

FIN

GRE

Results

Replay

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS 2

G1 - Race 2

12:30

14 July 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

UKR

FIN

GRE

Results

Replay

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS 2

G1 - Race 3

14:00

15 July 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

UKR

FIN

GRE

Results

Replay

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS 2

G1 - Race 4

15:30

15 July 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

UKR

FIN

GRE

Results

Replay

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS 2

G1 - Race 5

11:00

16 July 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

UKR

FIN

GRE

Results

Replay

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS 2

G1 - Race 6

12:30

17 July 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

UKR

FIN

GRE

Results

See All Races

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UNITED

STRONG TOGETHER

FROM OLD TRADITIONS TO NEW VICTORIES

As a sea nation, Ukrainians were good seafarers for centuries. Sailing down the Dnipro river from ancient Kyiv to the Black Sea and further was a regular practice long before the Middle Ages. The emergence of sailing as a leisure and sports activity can be traced to the XIX century, with the first yacht clubs popping up in central and southern Ukraine along with shipbuilding industry development.

In the XX century, Ukrainian sailors achieved fantastic results in Olympic sailing as members of the USSR team. This culminated in a phenomenal performance of Ukrainian-born Valentin Mankin (1938-2014). He won three Olympic gold and one silver medal in three yacht classes (Finn, Tempest, and Star) – a record that no one has managed to beat.

Also, Ukrainians are participants of the Whitbread Round the World Race as members of the famous Fazisi campaign (USSR, 1989-1990) and later, under the Ukrainian flag with two yachts in the 1993-94 season.

The 1991-2004 period was very successful for the Ukrainian national sailing team. In the 470 class, Ukrainians won gold in Atlanta by Braslavets/Matvienko male crew and two bronze medals (Atlanta and Sydney) by the crew of Taran/Pacholchik. In the 2004 Athens Olympics, Ruslana Taran went on to win silver in the Yngling class. Also, in 2004 Ukrainian crew Luka/Leonchuk took silver in the 49er class.

The generations gap started to affect the Ukrainian Olympic performance during that period. While seasoned crews continued to perform well on the international scene in classes like Soling, Star, and Dragon, the lack of trained young sailors made it impossible to achieve excellent results in the Olympics.

Therefore, youth development became the focus of the national sailing authority. It took more than 10 years to achieve the first decent results in Optimist and ILCA classes. But the process went on culminating recently in several european and world championships titles in ILCA4, ILCA6 and ILCA7 youth World Championship silver medal.

Statistics

THE COUNTRY

10.000 Sailors
30 sailing clubs and marinas
6 Olympic medals in sailing
3,000 km of coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov

ACHIEVEMENTS

1 Olympic gold medal
2 Olympic silver medals
3 Olympic bronze medals

Ssl ranking

Year's best ranked woman:
Year's best ranked man:
Year Nation's best ranking

MAIN EVENTS

European Championship Platu 25 2021
Ukrainian Sailing Championship

The number “3” can be considered special for Ukraine in sailing sport in honor of Valentin Mankin’s three Olympic gold medals. Valentin Mankin is a legendary sailor who won three Olympic gold medals in sailing for the Soviet Union in 1968, 1972, and 1980.

The captain

Rodion Luka

During his career, the captain of SSL Team Ukraine has come a long way, from youth classes to steering yachts on the Volvo Ocean Race. Among his achievements are medals from the Olympic Games and gold at the World and European Championships, in the Olympic class. In total, he climbed the world championships podium seven times in different classes of monotypes. A true leader, with experience and high performance in four Olympic Games, will certainly lead the team to the top of the SSL Nations Gold Cup.

THE LEADERS

Ihor Matvienko:

Atlanta 1996 Olympic champion in the 470 class, then represented Ukraine in the Sydney and Athens Games as well. Founder of MIR Yacht Club in his home city of Dnipro, he devotes the most of his time popularizing sailing among young and adult. Head of regional sailing authority.

George Leonchuk

Three times Olympian and Athens 2004 silver medalist in the 49er class. Two times Dragon Class Gold Cup winner and multiple European championships’ medalist.

Boris Shvets:

Multiple National Champion in the 470 class and worldwide top SB20 helm and tactician. Represented Ukraine in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

THE YOUTH FACTOR

As the young sailors’ development has become a priority for the Ukrainian sailing federation, every opportunity is taken to gain more experience in different classes and competition levels. The SSL Team Ukraine is no exception, with half of the team comprised of young sailors. There are young guns such as Odesa-raised ILCA6 world championship bronze medalist Oscar Madonich, Vadim Okladnikov from Mariupol, Georgii Paches from Odesa (both ILCA7 sailors) to name a few.

Confirmed Athletes

Captain/Helm | 10

Trimmer | 24

Main Trimmer | 8

Grinder | 4

Bow | 2

Pit | 3

Trimmer | 2

1 | Bow

Helm | 9

Tactician | 9

TBD | 9

Spare | 7

Trimmer | 11

YELYZAVETA VYNOHRADOVA

TBD | 17

YURII LIUDOROVSKYI

Pit | 7

OLEKSANDR MENDELENKO

Grinder | 14

VALERII HARNAHA

Midbow | 72

ANASTASIA KOLESNICHENKO

Offside Trimmer | 15

VOLODYMYR BOGOMOLKIN

Trimmer | 11

Potential Team Position

1 BOW Stanislav Mulko	2 MID-BOW YURII LIUDOROVSKYI
3 PIT SEMEN KHASHCHYNA	4 GRINDER Valerii Kudriashov
5 TRIMMER VOLODYMYR BOGOMOLKIN	6 TRIMMER YULIYA FREESPIRIT
7 MAIN TRIMMER Georgiy Paches	8 HELMS
9 TACTICIAN Oscar Madonich	10 CAPTAIN Rodion Luka
11 FLOATER ANASTASIA KOLESNICHENKO

BOW

Stanislav Mulko

MID-BOW

YURII LIUDOROVSKYI

PIT

SEMEN KHASHCHYNA

GRINDER

Valerii Kudriashov

TRIMMER

VOLODYMYR BOGOMOLKIN

TRIMMER

YULIYA FREESPIRIT

MAIN TRIMMER

Georgiy Paches

HELMS

TACTICIAN

Oscar Madonich

CAPTAIN

Rodion Luka

FLOATER

ANASTASIA KOLESNICHENKO

SQUAD

Rodion Luka	Ruslana Taran
Georgiy Paches	Oscar Madonich
Ihor Matviienko	Valerii Kudriashov
Stanislav Mulko	Andrii Klochko
Andrii Husenko	Denis Osliak
SEMEN KHASHCHYNA	ANASTASIA KOLESNICHENKO
YULIYA FREESPIRIT	VOLODYMYR BOGOMOLKIN
YELYZAVETA VYNOHRADOVA	YURII LIUDOROVSKYI
OLEKSANDR MENDELENKO	VALERII HARNAHA