Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan dreams of winning Olympic gold although the miracle seems quite impossible in her case. Four-time world champion and a member of the winning team in the 2008 Olympics saber event, the young lady came close to missing a shot at Paris twice.
In December 2022, Kharlan said she thought about retiring from the sport because she feared for her family’s safety in Ukraine after the invasion by Russia. However, getting a bronze medal at the Grand Prix held in Tunis early in 2023 gave her the encouragement to go further. “I was thinking, ‘Yeah, I can do it I will fight’, and of course, a lot of support came from Ukraine,” she added that Ukrainian soldiers who followed her progress encouraged her.
Kharlan was disqualified at the world championship when she refused to shake hands and embrace her Russian opponent, Anna Smirnova which deprived her of important Olympic qualifying points. But then Olympic panel head Thomas Bach, himself an Olympic fencer champion, pitched in. He gave her an automatic place in the Paris Olympics taking her peculiar status into consideration.
Thinking of this Kharlan said ‘It’s not that bad to disqualify’ She was not happy at all with the elimination process and was evidently moved to the central when she said that it was one of the worst days in her cycling career. “It left me frustrated, the worst crying session I have ever had for about two and half hours and regularly feeling helpless and both angry and sad at the same time”.
Speaking about Kharlan and her Olympic experience, one can state that her motivation is based on her desire to represent her country and family on the Olympic Games level. In the finals bout for the individual women’s saber on Monday, she does so, representing the dreams and the pride of her family and her nation.