Ukraine’s first medal of the 2024 Olympics belongs to ladies’s fencer Olga Kharlan, however she insists it’s for extra than simply herself.
Kharlan beat South Korea’s Choi Sebin 15-14, getting back from a six-point deficit, for the ladies’s saber fencing bronze medal on Monday. She then devoted the medal to her nation amid its ongoing battle with Russia.
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“I brought a medal to my country, and it’s the first one, and it’s going to be a good start for all our athletes who are here because it’s really tough to compete when in your country is at war,” Kharlan advised reporters after the match. “Every medal, it’s like gold. I don’t care (that) it’s bronze. It’s gold.”
Sebin Choi and Olga Kharlan compete within the Fencing Ladies’s Sabre Particular person Bronze Medal Bout on the Paris Olympics. (Al Bello/Getty Photographs)
There are solely 140 athletes from Ukraine on the Olympics, the smallest group within the nation’s historical past on the Summer season Video games, as a whole bunch have been killed through the battle.
A show with sports activities tools was arrange at Parliament Sq. in London to honor the 487 Ukrainian athletes killed since Russia’s invasion of the nation.
Russia’s battle in opposition to Ukraine, which started on Feb. 24, 2022, simply days after the conclusion of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, has now gone on for 2 years, 5 months and one week. It’s a battle that nearly not directly price Kharlan an opportunity to even compete within the Paris Olympics, if not for a “unique exception.”
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Throughout the 2023 World Fencing Championships, Kharlan was disqualified from competitors for refusing to shake the hand of a Russian opponent she defeated. The disqualification put her Olympic ambitions in jeopardy, because the World Championships are a key Olympic qualifier, as she was additionally handed a two-month ban.
Nonetheless, the Worldwide Olympic Committee later granted her a “unique exception” and a assured spot in Paris. Fencing’s governing physique additionally rescinded the disqualification and the two-month ban, and even went as far as to cross an official rule that declared handshakes after bouts non-compulsory.
Olga Kharlan celebrates successful the Fencing Ladies’s Sabre Particular person Bronze Medal on the Paris Olympics. (Al Bello/Getty Photographs)
The rulings allowed Kharlan to compete and earn her nation’s first Olympic medal for the reason that Russian invasion.
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“I can say that I wouldn’t change anything,” Kharlan advised reporters in regards to the journey. “What I went through, it represents my country, what it goes through, and I wouldn’t change anything. This is my story.”
In the meantime, Russia is not going to be incomes any Olympic medals in any respect in Paris.
Bronze medalist Olga Kharlan of Crew Ukraine celebrates on the rostrum through the Ladies’s Sabre Particular person medal ceremony on the Paris Olympics. (Al Bello/Getty Photographs)
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As a result of Russia invaded Ukraine simply 4 days after the tip of the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Worldwide Olympic Committee thought-about this assault a violation of the Olympic truce — a decision that requires all nations to put down arms and never have interaction in battle beginning one week earlier than the Olympics begins and ending one week after the tip.
Due to this, Russian athletes aren’t allowed to characterize their nation’s flag in Paris, however can compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes.”
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