Ukrainian Paralympian says ChatGPT helped him win silver medal

Artificial intelligence has become so prevalent, it’s starting to replace coaches.

Ukrainian paralympic skier Maksym Murashkovskyi said he used ChatGPT as a psychologist, coach and doctor to prepare him for the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games, which began March 4.

Murashkovskyi won a silver medal in the men’s individual vision-impaired biathlon at the NS3 classification, which includes athletes with the least amount of visual impairment.

The event combines cross-country skiing with air rifle shooting.

Maksym Murashkovskyi won silver alongside Ukranian teammate Dmytro Suiarko, who claimed bronze. Getty Images

With a time of 33:41.1, he finished 10 seconds in front of fellow Ukrainian Dmytro Suiarko in third and two minutes behind gold medalist Dang Hesong of China.

Murashkovskyi was accompanied by his guide skier, Vitaliy Trush, despite a guide being optional for NS3 and NS2 competitors.

In the shooting portion, athletes use electronic rifles and acoustic signals that tell them how close they are to the target.

Murashkovskyi described ChatGPT as a “revolutionary technology,” saying he’d been training for the Olympics with it for the past six months.

He also used it for the Para Biathlon World Cup in January, where he won a gold medal.

“It was not only tactics,” Murashkovskyi said, according to the New York Times. “It was half of my training plan, motivation, etcetera. So it was a huge volume of all of my training.”

Maksym Murashkovskyi participated in the biathalon with the help of a guide. Getty Images

He also believes that AI chatbots can partly replace coaches in the future, though not for five to 10 years.

China currently leads the Paralympic Games medal count at 23, including nine golds, as of Tuesday afternoon.

Austria has the second-most golds, though the United States is in a three-way tie for second place with 10 total medals (three golds). The final event is scheduled for March 15.

Those standings are much different from the 2026 Winter Olympics tally, where Norway was the clear winner in both categories with 18 golds and 41 total medals.

The U.S. finished second in both categories, and Italy and Germany placed third and fourth in the overall count, respectively.