Ukraine wins its first gold medal of the Paris Olympics, in women's team saber fencing

PARIS — Olga Kharlan got the winning touch for Ukraine's first gold medal of the Paris Olympics, ripped off her fencing mask and sank to her knees.

When she got up again, it was to dance on the piste wrapped in a Ukrainian flag and join teammates Alina Komashchuk, Olena Kravatska and Yuliia Bakastova in the celebrations.

Kharlan went in for the final leg of the women's team saber final with South Korea on Saturday needing to turn around a three-point deficit to keep her team in the contest.

She'd been thinking of Ukrainian troops fighting on the front lines as motivation, trying to keep her own emotions in check “like a robot.” And then she heard the crowd in Paris chanting her name.

“I couldn’t believe it. They’re shouting ‘Olga, Olga!'” she said. “It’s beautiful. Thank you, Paris.”

Facing South Korea's Jeon Ha-young, Kharlan said she realized the key right then was to relax. She did just that, and scored the eight points Ukraine needed for a 45-42 victory.

“At some point I said ‘I’m going to have fun, I’m going to enjoy this moment,’” Kharlan said. “I enjoyed all the fencing and just went for it.”

It was Kharlan's second medal in Paris after an individual saber bronze, and the sixth overall from five Summer Games for the country's most decorated Olympian. She hadn't won a gold medal since 2008 in Beijing, when she was 17.

Kharlan and her team were six points down early in the gold-medal match before rallying for the win. Kharlan went a combined 22-10 from her three matchups in the nine-leg final.

“We cheer for our athletes and support them as a nation. Ukraine knows how to inspire both at the Olympic Games and times like these!” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a message of congratulations on social media.

Ukraine had two medals in Paris before Saturday's final; a silver in shooting from Serhiy Kulish and the bronze that Kharlan won Monday.

Now Kharlan is heading back to Ukraine next week for the first time since April to see her parents.

She'll leave Paris with her two medals a year after she was disqualified at the world championships for refusing to shake the hand of a Russian fencer, something which put her Olympic qualification in jeopardy. The International Olympic Committee stepped in to allow Kharlan a direct spot at the Paris Games.

“One year ago, I was almost done with fencing because I was disqualified,” she said. “This is the story that has a very happy end. I would like to say thank you to everyone who made it happen. And believe, work, never give up — like Ukraine.”

That incident at the world championships highlighted the tension over whether to allow Russian athletes to keep competing following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. There are 15 Russians competing at the Paris Olympics, but as Individual Neutral Athletes. None of them are competing in fencing.

More than two years on from Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has its smallest Olympic team since independence from the Soviet Union, with 142 athletes across all sports.

Japan beat France 45-40 for the bronze medal, even though the French team had individual gold medalist Manon Apithy-Brunet and silver medalist Sara Balzer.

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Associated Press journalist Hanna Arhirova contributed to this report.