Harlan: This medal is for our defenders and protectors.

Ukrainian fencer Olga Harlan shared her emotions after her historic victory Ukrainian women’s sabre fencing team on Olympic Games 2024 in Paris.

“We can’t comprehend it. I think we will comprehend it a little later. We know one thing: we raised the Ukrainian flag higher, sang the anthem. This medal is for our defenders. We thank our families for their support. We are shocked.”

“How did you prepare for the final? We told ourselves that we could do it. It wasn’t that we had to – we didn’t want to [накручивать]. We wanted to fence. Honestly, we were relaxed. [перед началом матча]”.

“16 years at the Olympics? Harlan stays, the team changes (laughs). I don’t believe this is happening. We are with the team that [была] in Beijing, we communicate, we are still a team. This is their medal too.”

Let us recall that yesterday the Ukrainian women’s sabre fencing team won gold medals in the team competition at the 2024 Olympic Games, beating South Korea in the final (45:42). In the decisive match, Olha Kharlan won 8:2 and brought Ukraine its first gold at the Games in Paris.

In addition to Harlan, Alina Komashchuk, Elena Kravatskaya and Yulia Bakastova won gold medals as part of the national team. At the same time, Olga set a new Ukrainian record for the number of medals at the Olympic Games (6), and at the same time broke the record for the longest interval between two Olympic gold medals in fencing (16 years).

The sabre fencers brought Ukraine its third medal at the current Games in Paris. Earlier Olga Harlan won a bronze medal in sabre fencing. Sergey Kulish won silver in the 50-meter air rifle three-position event. Another medal for Ukraine was guaranteed by a boxer Alexander Khizhnyak.

The 2024 Summer Olympics will end on August 11. The competition will feature 329 sets of medals in 32 sports.