Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan won bronze at the 2024 Olympics. With a score of 15:14, she defeated Korean Choi Seobin and brought Ukraine its first medal at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
This is Harlan’s fifth Olympic medal in the career of the leader of the Ukrainian national team. She won gold in 2008 and silver in 2016 in the team event, as well as two bronze medals in the individual competition in 2012 and 2016. Harlan became the first athlete in the history of Ukraine to medal at four different Olympics in her career.
This bronze medal was the eighth medal in the history of Ukrainian fencing, and Harlan has contributed to more than half of them.
Three Ukrainian women started in Paris, two of whom – Alina Komashchuk and Olena Kravatska – were eliminated in the first round of the main draw.
Olympic champion Olha Harlan went on to win the tournament, starting with three confident victories on her way to the semifinals. She defeated Japan’s Shihomi Fukushima with a score of 15:9, Azerbaijan’s Anna Bashti (15:6) and Hungary’s Anna Marton (15:7).
In the semifinals, Harlan fenced for a place in the final with the second-ranked French fencer Sarah Balzer. However, in the duel with the host of the 2024 Olympics, the Ukrainian lost with a score of 7:15.
Harlan still had a chance to win bronze in the final. The Ukrainian’s rival was Korean Choi Sebin, who lost in the semifinals to another Frenchwoman, the current bronze medalist Manon Brunet, with a score of 12:15.
