Saber-fencing world champion Olha Kharlan won Ukraine's first medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 29, a bronze, giving her country something to celebrate as it battles invading Russian forces.
Kharlan is one of the most decorated athletes in Ukrainian history, with more than 100 medals from various competitions to her name, and its most decorated Olympic athlete.
"It's really special for me," Kharlan said in an interview with DW. "It's special because it's for my country. It's for people in Ukraine, it's for defenders (soldiers), it's for athletes who couldn't come here because they were killed by Russia."
The 33-year-old athlete has already said that the Paris Olympics could be the last of her sporting career, and she managed to make the most of it.
The five-time Olympian and four-time world champion in the event said her latest medal was nothing like the others she won at previous Olympics, including a team gold in 2008 in Beijing.
"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 your country is at war," she said.
After winning bronze in the individual event, she was part of the women's team that won Ukraine's first Olympic gold in Paris, a milestone that did not go unnoticed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who wrote on X: "I thank them for the result, for the spirit, for showing that Ukrainians win!"
It was a stunning performance for the leader of Ukraine's national fencing team, who has become a figurehead for Ukrainian athletes standing up to Russia's aggression.
Kharlan has been one of Ukraine's biggest sports stars for almost two decades. Powerful, fast, and always focused, she says that when she is on the attack, "I can be like a train."
Controversy
Kharlan at one time felt that her chances of making it to a fifth Olympics were "ruined" after she was disqualified from the world championships in Milan in 2023 for refusing to shake hands with Russia's Anna Smirnova, who was competing as a neutral athlete.
"I thought this was the end, that this was the end of my career," she told The Guardian. "It was there that I felt in the worst condition of my life."
She had just beaten Smirnova 15-7 when, instead of shaking hands, as is customary, Kharlan offered her saber to tap blades. Smirnova then walked away before staging a 45-minute sit-down protest where she refused to leave the piste.
The International Fencing Federation (FIE) quickly reversed its decision to disqualify Kharlan, allowing her to continue to participate in the Milan competition.
She was also awarded a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics by Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Bach acknowledged the "roller coaster of emotions and feelings" Kharlan was likely experiencing and called for "sensitivity" when it came to the issue of Ukrainian and Russian athletes competing against one another at international sporting events.
"I got a lot of negative comments about what I did," she said. "But people who talk like that don't understand what war means."
Humble Beginnings
Kharlan was born in 1990 in the southern port city of Mykolayiv, which, since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, has repeatedly been shelled by the Russian military. Kharlan managed to get her sister and nephew out of Ukraine, but her parents have insisted on staying unless Russia occupies the city.
As a child, Kharlan dabbled in dancing, but it proved to be too expensive for her family. When she was 10, she switched to fencing because her godfather was a coach, and she didn't have to pay a fee.
At the age of 14, she won her first prize money in a fencing competition and shared it with her family to ease their dire financial situation.
When Ukraine won gold in the team saber competition for the first time at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the then-17-year-old claimed it was the most unforgettable experience of her life.
She later said that "fencing is like chess at 200 kilometers per hour."
In order to determine the winner of a match, judges must examine slow-motion video replays in order to see the fighters' movements, hesitancies, and errors that would otherwise be imperceptible to the unaided eye. For those unfamiliar with the sport, these regulations can make it challenging to watch.
To Fame
Kharlan is among the world's most accomplished saber fencers, having won numerous titles. She is a six-time world champion, an eight-time European champion, as well as a winner of three bronzes and one silver medal in individual competitions at the Olympics.
She was also immortalized in a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll that was auctioned for over $10,000, with the proceeds going to the rehabilitation of wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
Both her ex-husband, Dmitry Boyko, and her current boyfriend, Luigi Samele, are saber fencers. Today, she lives with Samele in Bologna.
Kharlan has tried her hand at politics. She joined the Mykolayiv city council in 2010 as a representative of the Party of Regions, despite the fact that she frequently missed sessions because of contests. She participated in the 2014 Kyiv municipal elections on behalf of the Green Party, but the party was unable to cross the 3 percent electoral threshold.
Kharlan has no intention of giving up the sport, even after she stops competing. She hopes to make fencing more approachable for kids in schools -- like tennis and soccer.
