Ukrainian National Fencers Win Two Sets of Awards in Paris
President of the Fencing Federation of Ukraine Mikhail Ilyashev commented on the performance of the Ukrainian team at the 2024 Olympics. The functionary also spoke separately about the admission of “neutral” athletes to the competition.
“You can’t be sure, but when you go to the Olympics, you count on medals. We understood that the lack of medals would be a bad performance for us. At the same time, we will have different levels of success. When Olga Kharlan won bronze in the individual competition, we breathed a sigh of relief. Because we understood that the performance was already good. And then we hoped for an excellent performance.”
“They have not resigned themselves to their current situation and will try to return to major tournaments. And they are doing everything they can to do this. Now this Olympic wave will pass, and they will again begin to prepare for this world public opinion. For example, soon there will be a congress of the International Fencing Federation, and this issue will arise there again.”
“The list of so-called “neutral” athletes who are allowed to participate in the Olympics continues to expand. Therefore, this topic will become acute again now, and although it will not be in the public eye, it is still important technical work of the Federation. But we are still far from resolving this issue completely.”
Olha Kharlan won the bronze medal in sabre fencing. In the match for third place, Kharlan met Choi Sae-bin from South Korea. The Ukrainian lost the first period 3:8, and then was behind 4:10 and 5:11, but showed character and bounced back — 15:14.
Ukraine also won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the women’s team sabre tournament. Harlan once again showed her leadership qualities, defeating her opponent in the decisive match with a score of 8:2.
Thus, 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).
Source: Sportarena
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