Ukrainian fencer Kharlan wins first medal at Paris Olympics

Ukrainian fencer Olha Kharlan has won the final match of the individual sabre tournament at the 2024 Olympic Games. Source: Champion, a sports news platform within Ukrainska Pravda's holding company Nearly losing the match for the bronze medal with 5-11, Kharlan managed to snatch a fantastic one-strike victory over Choi Soo-yeon of South Korea (15-14), winning Ukraine's first medal at the Paris Olympics 2024.

Kharlan had defeated Shihomi Fukushima of Japan in the 1/16 final, defeated Anna Bashta of Russia in the 1/8, and had no trouble beating Anna Marton of Hungary in the quarter-finals.

Olha's only defeat came from Sara Balzer of France, the second in International Fencing Federation's world ranking, who will compete for gold with her French teammate Manon Brunet in the final. This is Kharlan's third individual bronze medal after London 2012 and Rio 2016. She also has two team Olympic medals: gold from Beijing Olympics in 2008 and silver from Rio Olympics in 2016.

Moreover, Kharlan is the second Ukrainian woman after Yana Klochkova to have five Olympic medals.

The 32-year-old Ukrainian will have a chance to win another team award in Paris. The women's national sabre tournament will start on 3 August at 14:00 Kyiv time, with the Ukrainian team facing the Italians in the quarter-final. As reported earlier, Olha Kharlan's teammates Olena Kravatska and Alina Komashchuk lost in the 1/16 finals of the 2024 Olympics.

Earlier, Kharlan's boyfriend became a bronze medallist in the men's individual tournament at the Paris Games.

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