After she was disqualified from the fencing world championships for not shaking Russian rival’s hand, Olha Kharlan plight has become a touchstone for a war-torn nation
lha Kharlan remembers taking her kit, sitting quietly in a side room and contemplating a future without the sport she loves. It all seemed so nonsensical. She had been disqualified from the fencing world championships in Milan for, and the price for exercising a point of principle had soared beyond all expectation.
from the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, a former fencer, guaranteed her a place next summer. The short-term future remains unclear but at least someone had recognised the collective trauma endured by millions of Ukrainians.Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images Competing normally was out of the question. “I couldn’t find myself on the strip, couldn’t find my fencing, you just can’t be focused that much,” she says of her form last year. Mykolaiv was still being attacked last June as she prepared for the European championships in Antalya. “There were about 50 rockets fired there the day before. The next day I had to fence and it was the worst feeling. I started to press upon my family to leave: ‘Please go, if you love me please go.
“Our ministry of sport only confirmed we could compete against Russians the day before. I spoke to my family, my coach, my psychologist, everyone, all in 24 hours before the fight. I had to figure it out very fast. I wasn’t quite panicking, but I became really nervous. All the pressure and emotions felt too much for me but I thought: ‘You just have to go through this and then it’ll be better, it’ll be OK.
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