The
National Olympic Committee of Ukraine selected a team of 238 athletes, dividing into men and women by half, to compete in 21 sports; it was the nation's third-largest team sent to the Olympics, but the smallest since
2000. For the second consecutive time in its Olympic history, Ukraine did not qualify athletes in any of the team-based sports. Athletics was the largest team by sport, with a total of 78 competitors. The Ukrainian team featured twelve Olympic medalists from
Beijing, five of them defending (rifle hooter
Artur Ayvazyan, archer
Viktor Ruban, heptathlete
Nataliya Dobrynska, sprint kayaker
Inna Osypenko, and former featherweight boxer
Vasyl Lomachenko, who competed in the men's lightweight division). Eights rower
Oleh Lykov and windsurfer Maksym Oberemko became first Ukrainian athletes to compete in five Olympic games. Along with Ayvazyan, four Ukrainian athletes made their fourth Olympic appearance: windsurfer
Olha Maslivets, pole vaulter and bronze medalist
Denys Yurchenko, freestyle and open water swimmer
Ihor Chervynskyy, and mountain biker
Serhiy Rysenko. Rower Kostiantyn Zaitsev marked his Olympic return in London after a twelve-year absence, and competed in men's quadruple sculls. Meanwhile, former freestyle swimmer
Olga Beresnyeva and long-distance runner
Serhiy Lebid were among the nation's athletes who made their comeback at these Olympic games after an eight-year absence. Hammer thrower
Oleksandr Dryhol, at age 46, was the oldest athlete of the team, while relay swimmer
Iryna Hlavnyk was the youngest at age 16. Other notable Ukrainian athletes featured platform diver and former
Youth Olympic games medalist
Oleksandr Bondar, sprint canoer and Olympic bronze medalist
Yuriy Cheban, 2011 World Amateur Boxing champion
Oleksandr Usyk in the men's heavyweight division, and former Olympic champions
Irini Merleni in women's freestyle wrestling,
Yuri Nikitin in trampoline gymnastics, and
Olena Kostevych in pistol shooting. Judoka and Olympic bronze medalist
Roman Gontiuk was the nation's flag bearer at the opening ceremony. The following is the list of number of competitors participating in the Games. Note that reserves in fencing, field hockey, football, and handball are not counted as athletes: ==Archery==