By JAMES ELLINGWORTH
PARIS (AP) — Ukraine won its first gold medal of the Paris Olympics with a victory over South Korea on Saturday in the women’s team saber fencing final.
Individual bronze medalist Olga Kharlan scored 22 points and the Ukrainian team recovered from six points down for a 45-42 win.
“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.
With the Paris crowd chanting her name, Kharlan came in for the final leg of the bout with her team down 40-37 and went 8-2 to win.
“I couldn’t believe it. They’re shouting ‘Olga, Olga,’” she said. “It’s beautiful. Thank you, Paris.”
When Kharlan got the winning touch, she turned around, ripped off her mask and sank to her knees. When she got up again, it was to dance on the piste wrapped in a Ukrainian flag before joining teammates Alina Komashchuk, Olena Kravatska and Yuliia Bakastova.
Kharlan said she motivated herself with thoughts of the sacrifices made by Ukrainian troops on the front lines, and that the team dedicated its medal to them. She added that she’d been trying to keep her emotions in check, “kind of like a robot,” but that in the crucial final leg relaxing was the key.
“At some point I just relaxed and 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.”
Ukraine had two medals before Saturday’s final; a silver in shooting from Serhiy Kulish and the bronze that Kharlan won Monday in women’s saber, in a similarly emotional comeback.
Kharlan is heading back to Ukraine next week for the first time since April to see her parents.
She’ll leave Paris with 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.”
It was an incident that highlighted the tension over whether to allow Russian athletes to keep competing following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Fifteen Russians are in Paris but competing as Individual Neutral Athletes, none of them in fencing.
Five-time Olympian Kharlan has her sixth Olympic medal — the most of any athlete representing Ukraine — in a career that began with women’s team saber gold at the 2008 Olympics, when she was 17.
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.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
