Ukrainian judoka Litvinenko won gold for the UAE at the World Championships

Ukrainian judoka Yelyzaveta Litvinenko, who changed her sporting nationality in 2025 and began representing the UAE national team, won a gold medal at the World Championships in the under-78-kg weight class. In the final match, she defeated France’s Kayla Issoufi.

Previously, the athlete competed for Ukraine, winning a bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships and reaching the quarterfinals of the 2024 Olympics. Meanwhile, another well-known Ukrainian judoka, Daria Bilodid, plans to resume her career and compete in the Open Continental Cup in the U.S. in late October.

Source: Glavkom.

Ukrainian gymnast Anna Pikalyuk has received Croatian citizenship. The 19-year-old gymnast is being compared to Illia Kovtun, who also changed his athletic citizenship to Croatian in the summer of 2025. He explained his decision by saying that people in Croatia were more excited about his Olympic medal than they were in Ukraine.