Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan scored more than a bronze medal at the 2024 Olympics on July 29. She showed the world that Ukraine still stands strong and will never give up.
Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, 487 Ukrainian athletes have been killed as a result of the war, including former and future Olympic hopefuls. The remaining athletes faced unimaginable obstacles. Hundreds of training facilities were bombed, friends and family were killed, and the sound of air raid sirens filled the air in their hometowns. Many fled to other countries, including France, to train.
So, who is Olga Kharlan, and why is she, and her victory so important?
Ukraine’s history at the Olympics
After gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, independent Ukraine became its own entity in the Olympics and international sports arena. The first post-Soviet Olympics for Ukraine was the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, where the nation began to carve out its place in worldwide sports. The country sent 37 athletes who competed in ten sports and brought home two medals.
No one, including the Olympics organizers, anticipated a 16-year-old Ukrainian figure skater would win gold. Oksana Bayul made history when she skated to victory in the Singles event. The medal ceremony was delayed for an hour while officials searched for a copy of the Ukrainian national anthem. Two days earlier Valentina Tserbe-Nessina won a bronze medal in the women’s sprint biathlon. But we remember Oksana Bayul most. The biathlon doesn’t garner the worldwide audience that the artistry of figure skating does.
Fast forward to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Amelie Oudea-Caster, Minister for Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games of France addressed the Ukrainian athletes at the opening of their pavilion. “We know what you are going through. We want to support you to the best until victory…We know how many athletes have been murdered by this war of aggression. Unacceptable.”
Olga Kharlan – Barbie, Vogue, Elle, and more
Kharlan has competed, and won, on the world stage for years. The Paris Olympics are her fifth Olympics. Kharlan competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2012 London Olympics, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Kharlan was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Fencing Federation.
She is a two-time team world sabre champion, six-time individual European champion, and two-time team European champion. She is a 2008 team Olympic champion, 2016 team Olympic silver medalist, and three-time individual Olympic bronze medalist.
Both Vogue and Elle Ukraine editions featured her on their covers. Her face graces postage stamps and even the 4 of Clubs in a deck of Sports playing cards.
If you can find one, there is the Olga Kharlan Barbie Doll. In 2020, a few days before the commemoration of International Women’s Day, the American toy company Mattel launched a series of sports-inspired Barbie dolls that celebrate female role models.
According to BarbiePedia, Olga Kharlan is the first Ukrainian to become a prototype of a Barbie doll. In 2020, Mattel created her for a series of limited-edition Barbie Role Models to celebrate the brand’s 60th anniversary. At that time, 40 famous women became prototypes, including scientists, companies, directors of large companies, athletes, artists, and doctors.
In August 2020, Kharlan auctioned off a customized copy of the Barbie doll, which is one of a kind (OOAK). The doll sold for $10,400. She donated all the funds to a clinic in the Volyn region to rehabilitate Ukrainian soldiers who suffered as a result of the war.
Russia’s History at the Olympics
The Olympics are a time for the world to come together in the unity of honest sport, without the veil of politics. But you won’t hear the Russian national anthem played in Paris. In the case of Russia, sports are politics and propaganda. Per the charter “The mission of the IOC is to promote Olympism throughout the world and to lead the Olympic Movement. The IOC’s role is [also]: (…) to oppose any political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes.”
Russia has a long history of being banned from the Olympics for doping. Today the Olympic ban extends to the invasion of Ukraine.
- In 2022, a smiling Russian President Vladimir Putin used the Olympics as a perfect propaganda prop. He stood together in unity with Chinese President Xi Jinping as 100,000 Russian troops amassed at the Ukrainian border. What better backdrop for the attention of the international press than to use the Olympics? In a presumed agreement not to overshadow the Olympics, Putin held off invading Ukraine until two days after the Winter Olympics ended on February 20.
- In 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sanctioned Russia and Belarus and banned them. The invasion violated the Games’ Olympic Truce, which says nations are not to attack one another from one week before the Olympic Games to one week after the Paralympic Games. The Paralympics are held shortly after the Olympics.
- The night before the 2024 Olympic opening ceremonies, French authorities arrested a Russian intelligence officer for planned “acts to destabilize the Paris Olympic games.” He had lived undercover in France for fourteen years posing as a chef.
Russian and Belarusian athletes can participate in the Olympics, provided they don’t represent their country or any associated organization. Any athlete actively supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine cannot compete. Approximately twenty-five Russian and Belarusian athletes were approved to compete in neutral events. Ukraine protested this exception but lost.
Olga Kharlan’s Protest
Kharlan has been one of the most forthright of the Ukrainian sports stars in speaking out against Russia since the invasion of her country in February 2022. In August 2023, Kharlan made a statement when she refused to shake hands with her Russian opponent at the 2023 World Fencing Championships in Milan, Italy. (Kharlan won the championship.) By doing so, fencing officials removed her from the championship and Kharlan lost the right to another world individual championship. The move threatened her eligibility for the Olympics. She did not back down.
Due to a huge outcry, the International Olympic Committee bypassed the International Fencing Federation (Fédération Internationale d’Escrime; FIE) decision the next day. They qualified her for the Olympics. Note – Kharlan is in the hall of fame for the FIE.
For her stance, she is a hero to many people.
Note: I write this post from the luxury of safety, and the wealth of clean water, stocked grocery stores, and intact homes, hospitals, and daycare centers. Separated from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean, Russian tanks won’t roll into the U.S. to destroy and then occupy my independent, democratic country.
On March 3, 2022, I published a post “Remember Ukrainian Culture.” Sadly, I don’t know if any cultural icons mentioned exist.
This post is published before the Olympics finish on August 11. More sporting events and awards are pending, and world events change daily. On August 1, Ukrainian Sergiy Kulish won a gold medal in 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men.
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In friendship,
Katrina
