South Korea’s Jeon Hayoung (left) competes against Ukraine’s Alina Komashchuk in the women’s sabre final during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France.
11:23 JST, August 4, 2024
PARIS (AP) — Olga Kharlan provided the winning hand for Ukraine’s first gold medal at the Paris Olympics, ripping off her fencing mask and dropping to her knees.
Olga Kharlan of Ukraine celebrates her victory in the women’s sabre tournament final against South Korea during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Saturday, August 3, 2024, in Paris, France.
When she got back up, she danced on the track, wrapped in a Ukrainian flag, and celebrated the success with her teammates Alina Komashchuk, Olena Kravatska and Yuliia Bakastova.
Kharlan entered Saturday’s women’s sabre final against South Korea having to turn around a three-point deficit to keep her team in the race.
She had thought of Ukrainian troops fighting on the front lines as motivation, while trying to control her own emotions “like a robot.” And then she heard the crowd in Paris chanting her name.
“I couldn’t believe it. They’re going ‘Olga, Olga!'” she said. “It’s beautiful. Thank you, Paris.”
Speaking to South Korea’s Jeon Ha-young, Kharlan said she realized it was important to relax at that moment, which she did, scoring the eight points Ukraine needed for a 45-42 victory.
“At one point I said ‘I’m going to have fun, I’m going to enjoy this moment,'” Kharlan said. “I enjoyed all the fencing and just went for it.”
It was Kharlan’s second medal in Paris after an individual sabre bronze, and the sixth overall in five Summer Games for the country’s most decorated Olympian. She had not won a gold medal since 2008 in Beijing, when she was 17.
Kharlan and her team trailed by six points early in the gold medal match, but rallied to win. Kharlan won a combined 22-10 from her three matchups in the nine-game final.
“We cheer for our athletes and support them as a nation. Ukraine knows how to inspire, both at the Olympics and at moments like these!” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a congratulatory message on social media.
Ukraine had won two medals in Paris before Saturday’s final; silver in shooting by Serhiy Kulish and bronze won by Kharlan on Monday.
Now Kharlan will return to Ukraine next week for the first time since April to visit her parents.
She will leave Paris with her two medals, a year after she was disqualified from the world championships for refusing to shake hands with a Russian fencer, which jeopardized her Olympic qualification. The International Olympic Committee intervened to give Kharlan a direct place at the Paris Games.
“A year ago I was almost done with fencing because I was disqualified,” she said. “This is the story with a very happy ending. I want to thank everyone who made this possible. And believe, work, never give up — just like Ukraine.”
That incident at the world championships underscored tensions over whether Russian athletes will be allowed to continue competing after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Fifteen Russians are competing in the Paris Olympics, but as individual neutral athletes. None are fencing.
More than two years after the Russian invasion, Ukraine has the smallest Olympic team since independence from the Soviet Union, with 142 athletes across all sports.
Japan defeated France 45-40 for bronze, despite the French team winning individual gold with Manon Apithy-Brunet and silver with Sara Balzer.
