When she talks about this day of July 27, Olga Kharlan cannot stop tears from coming to her eyes. Until then, the Ukrainian saber fighter, now 33 years old, was one of the big names in her sport: Olympic team champion in 2008, four-time world champion, three-time World Cup winner. At the 2023 world championships, held in Milan (Italy), she made the great history of sport by refusing to shake the hand of her young Russian opponent, Anna Smirnova, whom she had just dominated.
A gesture which initially led the International Fencing Federation (FIE) to disqualify and suspend her, thus destroying all her chances of participating in the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. But the next day the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reacted through its president, the former fencer Thomas Bach, who sent Olga Kharlan a letter in which he guaranteed her qualification, exceptionally, for the Olympic tournament. Disavowed, the FIE was forced to reverse course: the regulation making a handshake compulsory at the end of each attack was urgently modified and the suspension of the Ukrainian athlete lifted.
“I hope that what happened has contributed to changing things in the sport and within the FIEtold the World Olga Kharlan on Saturday December 9, a few minutes after being beaten in the final of the Orléans Saber Grand Prix – a qualifying event for the Olympic Games – by Frenchwoman Manon Apithy-Brunet (15-12). But I didn’t think it would be this trying. For me, it’s still difficult to talk about it. I feel like I did what I had to do. I couldn’t see myself shaking hands with my Russian opponent even though my parents were holed up in a basement in Mykolaiv. »
The fencer’s parents still live in this town located between Odessa and Kherson, where Olga Kharlan was once a municipal councilor. She herself returned there for two days in September. But the Ukrainian now lives in Bologna, Italy, with her companion, the transalpine sabreur Luigi Samele. Her partners from the Ukrainian women’s saber team also live there and train alongside her.
“I was on the verge of exploding”
On July 27, when her suspension was announced, the champion believed her career was over. “I was terribly disappointed to have given twenty-three years of my life to fencing and for it to end like thisshe continues. The leaders of the FIE would have liked me to turn a blind eye to the situation, but that was impossible. Everyone knows the reality of what is happening in my country, except them, probably. » Until 2022, the FIE was chaired by Russian businessman Alisher Ousmanov, who had to give up his place due to Western sanctions decided after Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
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