Maksym Murashkovskyi of Ukraine secured a silver medal in the men's visually impaired biathlon at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, crediting OpenAI's ChatGPT for much of his preparation. The 25-year-old athlete revealed that the AI tool served as his psychologist, coach, and occasional doctor over the past six months. Ukraine stands second in the overall medal table after three days of competition.
At the Tesero cross-country arena in Italy, Maksym Murashkovskyi finished second in the men's visually impaired biathlon individual event on Sunday, March 8, without missing a shot in his second Paralympic race. "For the past six months, I have been training with ChatGPT," Murashkovskyi said. "It was not only tactics. It was half of my training plan, motivation, etc. So it was a huge volume of all of my training. I used it as a psychologist, coach and, sometimes, as a doctor."
The athlete, who described the technology as revolutionary, noted it allowed him to move beyond traditional human-led training. "I believe in it, it is a revolutionary technology," he said, adding that AI has applications in various fields, including sports, despite its use in military contexts during the conflict in Ukraine. "Unfortunately, you see it in the military sphere and in bad spheres," Murashkovskyi said. "But it's like with chemistry or biology, someone can use it for something good, someone can use it for something bad. I use it for learning, for languages, for some of my projects, in chemistry, biology and sports."
Ukraine has earned 10 medals at the Paralympic Games so far, with Murashkovskyi set to compete next in the visually impaired cross-country skiing on Tuesday, March 10. In other biathlon events, Chinese athlete Zhao Zhiqing took silver in the women's individual standing on March 9, finishing second for the second straight Paralympics after Beijing 2022. She aims for gold in future races, highlighting her determination despite losing her hands in a childhood accident. Canadian Mark Arendz won silver in the men's individual standing on March 8, posting a time of 30:52.5 in the 12.5km race, his 13th career Paralympic medal. South Korea's Kim Yun-ji celebrated a gold medal in biathlon with kimchi stew from a support center. British athlete Scott Meenagh placed 18th in the men's individual sitting event on March 9, with a time of 42:59.9 and five shooting penalties, citing challenging heat conditions.
