Paris 2024 anniversary: How defiant Kharlan inspired Ukraine to fencing gold
Kharlan cemented her status as Ukraine’s most decorated Olympian by leading her team to the women’s sabre team gold medal match. For ‘Olya’, it wasn’t about individual applause — it was about something far greater: her homeland.
“Honestly, our story from Tokyo to Paris was like a movie because after Tokyo, I was close to quitting because I didn’t succeed and I couldn’t handle it in the right way,” she recalled. “Half a year later, I said to myself, ‘This is not you, you are a fighter, and you have to try’.
“With the war in Ukraine, you hear the news, terrible news, all the time, every day. It was tough to force yourself to do something, because you don’t know what the future holds, you don’t know what will happen to your family. Of course, the thoughts, they are just eating you [up].”
Ukraine’s athletes demonstrated the bound spirit that has motivated them through these unprecedented times at Paris 2024, meeting the Republic of Korea in the final.
Kharlan, 33, opened proceedings by putting Ukraine ahead, but the team trailed by three points going into the final bout. As a teenager at Beijing 2008, she had led her nation to gold – the question was whether she could do it again, the answer never in doubt.
“To be at the Olympic Games since I’ve been at five of them,” she said, “it’s always like the first time. It’s four years’ work to qualify and go through all the ups and downs.”
Emotion and disbelief poured out on the strip as Kharlan sealed the gold medal for Ukraine, demonstrating the fighting spirit that encapsulated an entire population.
Watch the Personal Best: Paris 2024 film now on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and on the Olympics mobile app.