Ukrainian fencing star Olga Kharlan won her country’s first medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 29, taking bronze in the women’s sabre event. She dedicated her medal to Ukrainian athletes killed during Russia’s invasion.
Olympic Medal
Kharlan is the most decorated athlete in Ukrainian history. She is a five-time Olympian and four-time world champion with more than 100 medals from various competitions. This could be her last Olympics.
In an emotionally charged statement, Kharlan dedicated her medal to all the Ukrainian athletes “who couldn’t come here because they were killed by Russia.” According to the Ukrainian authorities, a total of 487 Ukrainian athletes have been killed as a result of Russia’s invasion. The total includes numerous former Olympians and future Olympic hopefuls. 
Some of The Fallen
Oleksandr Pielieshenko competed in weightlifting at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
11-year-old rhythmic gymnast Kateryna Diachenko, whose life was cut short by a Russian attack on her hometown of Mariupol.
Volodymyr Androshchuk won Ukraine’s Under-20 Championship in the decathlon.
Yevhen Malyshev, a biathlete in the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. He died in battle defending Kharkiv on March 1, 2022, one week before his 20th birthday.
Maksym Galinichev placed second the 2021 European Under-22 Boxing Championships. He was killed in action in the Luhansk region of Ukraine in March 2023, leaving behind a wife and 3-year-old daughter.
Halyna Perehudova won gold in her weight class in the Ukrainian Under-17 Championships in 2021 aged just 13. 
Olga Kharlen
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. She managed to get her sister and nephew out of Ukraine, but her parents have insisted on staying unless Russia occupies the city.
Kharlan’s Olympic victory has additional significance for Ukraine as she almost missed out on participating in Paris altogether due to her principled stand over the Russian invasion of her homeland.
During the 2023 World Fencing Championship, Kharlan refused to shake hands with her Russian opponent, Anna Smirnova in protest over the war, offering instead to tap blades. Kharlan said she told a fencing official before the match that she would not shake hands with her opponent Smirnova and was told the blade touch would be acceptable.
Sabre Tap
Kharlan won 15-7 in their first round. To formally end the bout, Smirnova reached out her hand. But Kharlan, who has been a vocal critic of Russia, shook her head and opted for her sabre. Tapping blades has become an acceptable alternative to shaking hands for many fencers since COVID.
The two briefly stood still — Kharlan extending her blade, Smirnova keeping her’s held back — before Kharlan stormed off. Smirnova stayed in the fencing area for over 50 minutes to speak to several officials in an apparent protest over the handshake. Kharlan ultimately received a black card, eliminatin
Ukraine’s Olha Kharlan (L) refuses to shake hands with Russia’s Anna Smirnova, registered as an Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN), after she defeated her during the Sabre Women’s Senior Individual qualifiers, as part of the FIE Fencing World Championships on July 27.
Andreas Solaro/AFP via Getty Images
g her from the rest of the tournament and making it virtually impossible for her to take part in the 2024 Olympic Games.
An Olympic Platform
The incident sparked a heated debate over the role of politics in sport and the continued participation of Russian athletes in international events at a time when Russia is conducting Europe’s largest military invasion since World War II. Following a considerable outcry, Kharlan was reinstated.
An Olympic medal gave Kharlan, a hero to millions of Ukrainians, a platform to remind the world of what is happening in Ukraine. More than 4,000 athletes are still actively supporting the war effort.
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