For Ukrainian fencer Olha Kharlan, boycotting events in which Russians participate is not the right solution. She pleads, in an interview with AFP, to be able to participate in all competitions, and face the Russians “on all fronts”.
Like all her compatriots, the quadruple world saber champion is suffering from the war launched against her country by Russia. She worries about her loved ones. His father has been sleeping for a year in an air-raid shelter, for fear of the bombings. She is especially furious that the IOC and the International Fencing Federation (FIE) have allowed the Russians and their Belarusian allies to return to international competitions, even if it is individually under a neutral banner. But it also criticizes its own government for prohibiting its athletes from taking part in the events where the Russians compete.
“How many chances do we have to give the Russians? The war is not over yet,” she says. IOC President “Thomas Bach says there are other wars in the world, but to my knowledge no one except Russia has started three in recent memory. How are Ukrainian athletes supposed to feel? The IOC should be on our side and do justice, when in fact they are doing things totally against us, ”she wonders.
For Kharlan, it’s even a double jeopardy, since due to Kyiv’s politics, the two-time Olympic individual bronze medalist – she also won team gold in 2008 and silver in 2016 – could miss her qualification for the Paris Games, failing to participate in the qualifying tournaments. She therefore pleads for fencers to be able to do like their tennis counterparts, who grit their teeth and play well and truly against Russians and Belarusians. “I’m really proud of our tennis players and I imagine myself in their place, facing the people whose country is bombing and killing our compatriots. It must be very hard, but you know you have to do it because it’s a way of fighting, you are a fighter in your own way,” continues the Ukrainian, who fully justifies the Ukrainians’ refusal to shake hands with the Russians and Belarusians after the matches.
“They’re right not to shake their hands, I can’t imagine myself doing it,” she says, “there are many fronts, us in sports, it’s also a fight and a struggle “. Especially since the feedback she received from fighters on the front moved her to tears: “I hope that I will participate in the individual events (of the Games) because I think it is very important for Ukrainians in general. “, she explains. “The military who protect us follow our results. When I heard someone on the front line was watching my fight online, I was speechless. I had a hard time believing it! Oh my God ! They take the time when they protect my family from watching fencing. You feel proud of yourself, that’s so cool, what an honor!”
Since leaving at the start of the war in February 2022, Kharlan has only returned twice to Ukraine – she lives with her Italian boyfriend – and each visit has been a salutary reminder of what her family and compatriots are. faced daily. She was in Lviv last October for the Ukrainian championships – “incredible even in times of war, we were able to organize them”, she rejoices. “I was with my mother…and for the first time in my life I heard explosions, air raid sirens and rockets. I was scared. But my mother looks at me and says: It’s like that, okay, that’s it, you have to stay calm.
In an ideal world – “everyone knows the world is not perfect,” she says – Kharlan would like her family to be able to come to Paris next summer to support her during the Games. “It’s not my dream, she nuances, my dream, it would be the end of the war, but it’s my goal to be in Paris, and to have my family there to see me”.
