Oleksandra Kononova

Oleksandra Mykolaivna Kononova is a Ukrainian Paralympic skier. She won three medals at the 2010 Paralympics and became the 2010 Ukrainian sports personality of the year.

Kononova was born in Brovary in 1991. She had a condition when she was a young child that meant that her right arm did not develop as well as her other arm. Kononova was an orphan brought up by her grandmother. When she was ten she met some youths who were using inline roller skates. Kononova came from a poor background, she was bullied due to her disability and remembered being unhappy. She found out that the people she had met in the park were not roller skaters but a team training using skates for crosscountry skiing. She decided to take up the sport.

Source: Wikipedia