At the 2026 Winter Paralympics, Ukraine’s Maksym Murashkovskyi surprised fans by crediting artificial intelligence for his silver medal in the men’s individual vision-impaired biathlon.
“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, and much more. I used it as a psychologist, coach, and sometimes as a doctor.”
Guided by coach Vitaliy Trush, he finished second behind China’s Dang Hesong. Competing in his first Winter Paralympics, Murashkovskyi placed seventh in the men’s sprint on Saturday and still has three events remaining to add to Ukraine’s medal tally.
Despite his success, Murashkovskyi acknowledged that AI won’t fully replace human coaches anytime soon. “Not completely for five to 10 years. But part of it, definitely,” he said.
The 25-year-old added that without ChatGPT, he would have relied solely on “classical training, as I’ve always done, with humans.” Yet he believes AI has played a revolutionary role in his preparation.
Ukraine is currently second in the Milan-Cortina medal table, claiming all 10 of their medals—including three golds—in Para-biathlon events. Murashkovskyi’s innovative use of AI highlights how technology is starting to influence elite sports training and performance.
