Ukraine’s first medal of the 2024 Olympics belongs to women’s fencer Olga Kharlan, but she insists it is for more than just herself.
Kharlan beat South Korea’s Choi Sebin 15-14, coming back from a six-point deficit, for the women’s saber fencing bronze medal on Monday. She then dedicated the medal to her country amid its ongoing war 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 told reporters after the match. “Every medal, it’s like gold. I don’t care (that) it’s bronze. It’s gold.”
There are only 140 athletes from Ukraine at the Olympics, the smallest group in the country’s history at the Summer Games, as hundreds have been killed during the war.
A display with sports equipment was set up at Parliament Square in London to honor the 487 Ukrainian athletes killed since Russia’s invasion of the country.
Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, 2022, just days after the conclusion of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, has now gone on for two years, five months and one week. It is a conflict that almost indirectly cost Kharlan a chance to even compete in the Paris Olympics, if not for a “unique exception.”
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During the 2023 World Fencing Championships, Kharlan was disqualified from competition for refusing to shake the hand of a Russian opponent she defeated. The disqualification put her Olympic ambitions in jeopardy, as the World Championships are a key Olympic qualifier, as she was also handed a two-month ban.
However, the International Olympic Committee later granted her a “unique exception” and a guaranteed spot in Paris. Fencing’s governing body also rescinded the disqualification and the two-month ban, and even went so far as to pass an official rule that declared handshakes after bouts optional.
The rulings allowed Kharlan to compete and earn her nation’s first Olympic medal since the Russian invasion.
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“I can say that I wouldn’t change anything,” Kharlan told reporters about the journey. “What I went through, it represents my country, what it goes through, and I wouldn’t change anything. This is my story.”
Meanwhile, Russia will not be earning any Olympic medals at all in Paris.
Because of this, Russian athletes are not allowed to represent their nation’s flag in Paris, but can compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes.”
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