Olha Kharlan

Olha Hennadiivna Kharlan (Ольга Геннадіївна Харлан; born 4 September 1990), also known as Olga Kharlan, is a Ukrainian sabre fencer.

She is a four-time individual women’s world sabre champion, and a four-time Olympic medalist.

Kharlan contributed more than half her three-woman team's touches and proved decisive in the last bout, breaking a tie to score the last touch against 2002 world champion Tan Xue for a 45–44 team victory, helping Ukraine win the gold medal.

Kharlan joined the Ukrainian national team at the age of 14, in 2005.

Her first medal in an international competition was a bronze medal in the 2005 Junior World Championships in Linz, Austria.

She also took a silver medal in the team event.

That same year, she reached the quarter-finals in the 2005 European Fencing Championships in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary, despite still being a cadet.

She placed second in the 2006 European Seniors Fencing Championship in İzmir, Turkey, after a close 14–15 defeat against Russia's Sofiya Velikaya.

In 2006–07, she ranked 2nd in the world in women's junior sabre.

She won four consecutive junior world titles from 2007-10.

Also a four-time Olympian, she is a 2008 team Olympic champion, 2016 team Olympic silver medalist, and two-time individual Olympic bronze medalist.

Kharlan competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2012 London Olympics, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Kharlan was inducted in the hall of fame of the International Fencing Federation (Fédération Internationale d'Escrime; FIE).

She briefly pursued a political career.

Competing at the 2023 World Fencing Championships in Milan, Italy, on 27 July 2023, a key ranking event for Olympic qualifying, Kharlan defeated Russian Anna Smirnova 15–7.

After her defeat Smirnova extended her hand to Kharlan, who in turn extended her sabre in an offer to the Russian to tap blades.

Kharlan said her choice of salute was meant as a sign of respect for her opponent, while still acknowledging the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.

After a long delay during which Smirnova protested, sat on the strip for 45 minutes, and refused to move, Kharlan was ultimately black-carded and eliminated from the championship by FIE officials.

The Ukrainian delegation filed an appeal.

The following day, in order to compensate Kharlan for her loss of an opportunity to earn Olympic qualifying points in the individual world championship and for the humiliation of the prior day's disqualification, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach wrote that the IOC would automatically qualify her for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

In addition - after consultation with the IOC - the FIE reluctantly reversed its decision barring her from the competition, opening up the opportunity for her to compete in the team world championships.

However, since the individual competition had already concluded at that point, the FIE's reversal came too late to allow Kharlan to pursue her fifth world individual championship.

Kharlan was born in Mykolaiv, Ukraine.

Her father was a sailing and swimming coach, and taught her to swim when she was still a baby.

He also moonlighted as a construction worker and a cab driver.

Her mother worked as a painter and plasterer.

Kharlan's first interest was samba, cha-cha, and ballroom dancing, but the lessons were too expensive for her parents.

When she was 10, her godfather, sabre coach Anatoly Shlikar, suggested that she take up fencing, where the lessons were free; she settled on the sabre as her weapon a year into training.

For the first two years that she fenced, because she could not afford her own equipment, she borrowed the shoes, sabre, and fencing attire of others.

At the age of 17 Kharlan competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

In the team event, Ukraine made their way to the final, where they met China.

In the 2008–09 season Kharlan won the gold medal at the 2009 European Fencing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, both in the individual event and the team event, in which Ukraine overcame Russia.

She has been ranked #1 in the world in women's sabre for five years: in 2012–14, 2017–18, and 2019–21.

Kharlan is also a two-time team world sabre champion, six-time individual European champion, and two-time team European champion.

She came under the training of Artem Skorokhod, who remained her coach as of 2014.

Her first success was the national Junior title, which she won when she was only 13 years old, against teenagers up to five years older.

Kharlan was educated at the Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding in Mykolaiv.

She married fellow Ukrainian sabre fencer Dmytro Boiko in 2014.

They later divorced.

She is currently dating Italian Olympic sabre fencer Luigi Samele, and they live in Bologna, Italy.