Olha Kharlan is one of the most decorated athletes in Ukrainian history, having accumulated over 100 medals from various saber fencing competitions. She is also Ukraine’s most decorated Olympic athlete.
Winning her country’s first medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics last July, a bronze in saber fencing, gave her country a reason to celebrate while engaged in what is now nearly a three-year war with Russia. The medal was special for Kharlan because it was a victory for her embattled nation, for the soldiers defending Ukraine and for the athletes who could not compete at the Olympics because they were killed in the war.
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In all probability the 2024 Summer Games were Kharlan’s fifth and final Olympics. The four-time world champion in the event said her latest medal was the most important one in her storied career because it was Ukraine’s first one in Paris, the first of many, and its huge significance due to the circumstances of the war.
After winning bronze in the individual event, Kharlan was a key member of the women’s team that won Ukraine’s first Olympic gold medal in Paris. Portrayed by many as a stunning performance by the leader of Ukraine’s national fencing team, she has also stepped up as a figurehead for Ukrainian athletes standing up to Russia’s aggression.
She has described herself like a train when she is on the attack in a bout: powerful, fast and totally focused.
Olha Kharlan has been one of Ukraine’s major sports figures for nearly two decades. She has described herself like a train when she is on the attack in a bout: powerful, fast and totally focused.
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There was a time that Kharlan felt she would never make it to her fifth Olympics after she was disqualified from the World Championships in Milan, Italy in 2023 for refusing to shake hands with Russian Anna Smirnova, who was competing as a neutral athlete. At the time Kharlan reasoned that was the end of her fencing career and was one of the worst feelings in her life.
After defeating Smirnova 15-7, Kharlan did not follow the customary tradition of shaking hands with her opponent, instead offering to tap blades with her saber. The Russian proceeded to walk away before staging a 45-minute sit-down protest where she refused to leave the pit.
In short order, the International Fencing Federation reversed its decision to disqualify the Ukrainian, allowing her to continue participating in the Milan competition.
International Olympics Committee President Thomas Bach personally awarded a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to Kharlan, acknowledging the “roller coaster of emotional feelings” the Ukrainian fencer was experiencing and called for “sensitivity” regarding the issue of Ukrainian and Russian athletes competing against each other at international sporting events. Kharlan was inundated with many negative reactions to what she did, but remained steadfast in her convictions.
Olha Kharlan was born in 1990 in the southern city of Mykolayiv, which has been repeatedly bombed by Russia’s military since the start of the unprovoked Russian invasion in February 2022. Olha, her sister and a nephew managed to flee the country, but her parents refused to leave their home unless Russia occupied their city.
Her first interest as a child was dancing, but it proved to be too costly for her family to pursue for her, and at age ten Kharlan switched over to the sport of fencing, again for economic reasons. Her godfather was a fencing coach and she got in with a family discount. She won her first prize money in a fencing competition at age fourteen and shared her winnings with her family which was suffering through dire financial circumstances.
Kharlan joined the Ukrainian national team at the age of 14 in 2005 and won her first medal in an international competition (bronze) at the 2005 Junior World Championships in Linz, Austria. She won four consecutive junior world titles from 2007-2010.
Being a part of the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal winning Ukrainian saber team was Olha’s most unforgettable experience. She contributed more than half of her team’s touches and her last touch broke a tie in the last bout enabling her team to win the gold medal over China by the closest of margins, 45-44.
From 2008 through 2024, Kharlan accumulated 14 individual medals at World and European Championships (10 golds, 2 silvers, 2 bronze medals) and another 20 team medals at the same events including 4 golds, 11 silvers and 5 bronze medals.
Considered among the world’s most accomplished saber fencers, she is a six-time world champion, an eight-time European champion and a winner of three bronzes and one silver medal in individual competitions at the Olympics.
Olha was immortalized in a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll that was auctioned off for $10,000 with proceeds benefiting the rehabilitation of wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
Both her ex-husband, Dmytro Boiko, and current husband, Luigi Samele, are saber fencers.
Kharlan was inducted into the International Fencing Federation’s Hall of Fame in 2016. She has been awarded the Orders of Princess Olha (all three classes) and the Ukrainian Order of Merit (all three classes). In August 2024 she was awarded the National Legend of Ukraine and the Order of Liberty. She has also been awarded the title of Ukrainian Honored Master of Sport.
When she stops competing, Olha Kharlan plans to remain active in fencing, working to help popularize the sport for children in schools similar to soccer and tennis.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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