Saber Olga Kharlan, who became the first Ukrainian to face a Russian in nearly a year and a half at the World Fencing Championships on Thursday, was disqualified for refusing to shake hands with her opponent after beating her.
Kharlan had accepted this sporting confrontation against Anna Smirnova with the agreement of the Kiev authorities, which seems to show that they are moving away from a boycott of the Paris Games in the event of the participation of Russians or Belarusians under a neutral banner. But his disqualification despite his victory without trembling against Anna Smirnova for refusing to shake hands with his opponent, shows that nothing will be easily resolved in this case. On Wednesday, the swordsman Igor Reizlin, compatriot of Kharlan, could not enter the track against the Russian Vadim Anokhin.
But in the meantime a decree from the Ukrainian Sports Ministry marked a change in direction by the Kiev authorities, which until now had prohibited athletes from its official delegations from participating in competitions involving Russians or Belarusians.
Modified on Wednesday, it now only concerns “athletes representing the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus”. This allows them to compete against athletes under a neutral banner, which is in line with the recommendation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) implemented by several international federations, including fencing (FIE), to reintegrate Russians and Belarusians into the world sport.
This amendment is likely to dissipate the threat of an absence of Ukraine at the Paris Olympics, a hypothesis that was taking more and more shape with the absences of Ukrainian athletes in several qualifying competitions for the Olympics. Officially, Ukraine has not made a decision. “We are waiting for the final decision and whether (the Russians and Belarusians) will be allowed to participate or not,” Ukrainian Sports Minister and President of the National Olympic Committee Vadym Gutzeit told Le Monde on Tuesday.
Except on the ATP and WTA tennis tours where the players are not part of an official delegation, there has been no opposition between athletes from the two countries since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “I am really proud of our tennis players and I imagine myself in their place, facing the people whose country bombards and kills our compatriots”, had delivered a few weeks ago Olga Kharlan, pleading to face the Russians.
There was a scent more than an ordinary match on Thursday in the Milan convention center where around twenty members of the Ukrainian delegation pushed Kharlan loudly, multiplying the “Slava Ukraini” (“Glory to Ukraine” ). Quadruple world saber champion and headliner of Ukrainian sport, Olga Kharlan was only given final permission to participate on Thursday morning after a final meeting of her country’s sports bodies, detailed a member of the Ukrainian delegation present. in Lombardy.
Fencing was the first sport to reopen the door to Russians and Belarusians in March. Table tennis, canoeing and even rowing had notably followed suit following the recommendations of the IOC, which had advocated their return in March under a neutral banner and on an individual basis.
In fencing, 30 Russian fencers and 51 Belarusian fencers were granted “neutral individual athlete” status in April after their files were reviewed by an e-reputation company and then by a law firm before approval of the FIE Executive Committee. But no big name in the discipline among them: for example, the reigning Olympic champion in individual and team saber Sofia Pozdniakova, also the daughter of Stanislav Pozdniakov, himself a former saber champion and president of the Russian Olympic Committee, was dismissed. (ROCK).
After having outclassed Smirnova, Kharlan, four-time Olympic medalist, contented herself with a protocol salute to the referee, avoiding making one to her opponent. And rather than shaking his hand, she presented her saber so that the blades clash, a gesture that was common in the weapons rooms at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Faced with this refusal with a handshake, Anna Smirnova protested and refused to leave the track for almost an hour after the end of the match. The refusal to salute being liable to disqualification in the FIE regulations, she won her case.