Harlan wins Ukraine’s first medal at the Olympic Games: video
29 July 2024 23:30
Оlympics
Ukrainian fencer Olha Harlan has won a bronze medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. This is the first medal for Ukraine at the 2024 Olympic Games, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
The Ukrainian began her journey in Paris in the 1/16 finals with a confident victory over Japanese Shihomi Fukushima (15:9).
Then, in the round of 16, Olga met Anna Bashta of Azerbaijan and defeated her 15:6. In the quarter-finals, the sabre fencer defeated Hungary’s Anna Marton (15:7) and reached the semi-finals, where she lost to the host of the competition, Frenchwoman Sarah Balzer.
In the bronze medal final, the Ukrainian was waiting for Choi Se-bin of Korea. Olga lost the first period – 3:8 not in her favour. The second period started extremely nervously. Olga was losing with a score of 5:11. At the decisive moment, the Ukrainian sabre fencer gathered herself and turned the tide in her favour, making 8 accurate stabs in a row. The score was 11:12 in favour of the Ukrainian representative. Then, in a nervous duel, the rivals stabbed each other, and Olga Harlan got the last, winning stab.
The athlete defeated South Korea’s Choi Sibin in 15:14.
Fencers Alina Komashchuk and Olena Kravatska also fenced for Ukraine at the Paris Olympics. They were eliminated in the first round of the main draw.
The medal she won in Paris was the fifth in her Olympic career. In terms of the number of medals, Harlan repeated the Ukrainian Olympic record previously held by swimmer Yana Klochkova.
Harlan also made history by becoming the first Ukrainian athlete to win medals at four different Olympics in her career.
It is worth noting that Olga Harlan is an Olympic champion in Beijing 2008 (team event), bronze medallist in London 2012 and Rio 2016 (individual events). In addition, the Ukrainian has a silver medal in the team tournament in Rio 2016.
