Vasyl Matviychuk

Who is Vasyl Matviychuk?

Vasyl Oleksandrovych Matviychuk is a Ukrainian long-distance and marathon runner. He is a three-time national champion for the 5,000 and 10,000 metres. In 2001, he won the gold medal in the junior division at the European Cross Country Championships in Thun, Switzerland, with a time of 19 minutes and 29 seconds. He also set a personal best time of 2:10:36, by finishing fifth at the 2008 Turin Marathon.

Matviychuk represented Ukraine at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he competed for the men's marathon, along with his compatriots Oleksandr Kuzin and Oleksandr Sitkovskyy. He successfully finished the race in twenty-seventh place by eight seconds behind Morocco's Abderrahime Bouramdane, with a time of 2:17:50.

He was one of the subjects of the American documentary film, Spirit of the Marathon II, featuring his unsuccessful attempt to earn a spot in the Ukrainian Olympic team for the 2012 Summer Olympics at the 2012 Rome Marathon.