"Unbelievable!" How Ukrainian women paid for their victory at the 2024 Olympics, and foreign journalists surrounded Harlan and asked if she was more popular than football players

It is very symbolic that Olga Harlan opened the count of Ukrainian medals at the 2024 Olympics, and then it was the country's most titled fencer who secured our first gold medal in Paris in team sabre, defeating Korea in the final with 45:42. It was a magnificent hall that fiercely supported the blue and yellows, and an incredible performance that personified true Ukrainians - humane, but strong and unconquerable.

After her individual bronze medal at the French Games, Harlan emphasized that her work here is not yet complete. And when we spoke in the spring at the Ukrainian Championships in Kyiv, it seemed that the Beijing 2008 Olympic champion was going to Paris to get a gold medal, which would be a bright and logical point in her already legendary career.

In addition, in these difficult and scary times, Ukrainians need good news more than ever, they need victories, and Olga and her partners have constantly emphasized that they are very happy when they manage to bring our people at least a little joy with their performances.

That's why on August 3, Harlan's rivals had no chance, no matter who was standing in front of her on the track. In the eyes of the Mykolaiv saber fencer, you could see such a thirst for victory, such stubbornness and perseverance that she could simply demolish anyone who got in her way.

Even when she left the track, Olga couldn't stand still, as if she wanted to go back and finish the job. She could even joke around: "Let the Kraken out!" Olga was so powerful, aggressive and threatening to her rivals. And the Grand Palais stands never got tired of pushing her forward.

"We are for you," both volunteers and ordinary fans told us. And then they would chant "Olga" and burst into applause during the victory dances.

Of course, according to Harlan, this victory would not have happened without the support of her friends Alina Komashchuk, Olena Kravatska, and Yulia Bakastova.

"I really want to thank the girls, really. After all we've been through these two and a half years... Can you believe it? They are the strongest, kindest and coolest girls I know in my life. I am very grateful that they believed. Because none of this would have happened if they didn't believe in me today. In the last fight, when I turn around and see the way they look at me or Alina comes up... It's a great team, and it's something incredible," Olha said in a touching and emotional way.

"The last fight I was just fencing, before the Olympics I told myself that I would just enjoy them. And I did enjoy it. Something worked out, and something didn't, but I just kept going - I was there, I wasn't there! What else could I do? We already have the silver, and now we can do something incredible and be ranked 17th at the beginning of the qualification and win the Olympics," Harlan said.

And each of these heroic girls sacrificed something for the sake of the Parisian gold - family, time, health. After all, Olha would almost certainly have finished competing if she had achieved her personal gold three years ago in Tokyo and focused on her personal life with her beloved Italian fencer Luigi Samele.

After being eliminated in her first fight of the 2020 Olympics, Harlan had to go through a severe mental trauma and was forced to take a break, but returned at the most difficult time for Ukraine. She fought her fight against Russia, calling the murderers murderers and not shaking hands with the enemy, which earned her a disqualification from the World Cup and the risk of not qualifying for the 2024 Games.

But Harlan's courage and bravery inspired not only Ukrainians. At the Olympics in Paris, journalists from the most famous and influential publications in the world, including The New York Times and the Guardian, queued up to see her. Olga is incredibly popular even in Japan, as one of their media representatives told us.

After the full-scale invasion, Alina Komashchuk decided to quit sports altogether, moved to Spain and started her career in IT to be able to support herself and donate to the Armed Forces.

"The war started, my thoughts changed, sports became unimportant to me, I didn't understand how you could fence during the war. I went to study IT to find an opportunity to earn money somewhere else and plan my life. And I was categorical that I didn't want to compete anymore, that I was tired of sports, in general. And when there is a war, it is very difficult. I did not understand whether we would have sports at all. The thoughts were scary, everything was in the news," Alina told us.

Olena Kravatska manages to combine the role of a successful athlete and a mother, but of course her heart is not in the right place and her thoughts are not about awards when she is thousands of kilometers away from Odesa and her child, which is being massively targeted by Russia with missiles and drones. So she had to move her son to western Ukraine for the duration of the Olympics.

The youngest member of the team, Yulia Bakastova, was 12 years old when Harlan first became an Olympic champion in Beijing in 2008, and now she has also become a part of history, although she had to leave Kyiv and her family, because during these war years the team trains in Italy.

But all that these brave girls went through united them into a single whole. Looking at the faces of the Ukrainians after the competition, it was clear what the price of this victory was: thin, tired, but at the same time unbreakable, happy, and inseparable.

"Of course, I went out thinking: "I have a team". I helped Olya morally, was mentally with her in the decisive fight: holding her hand, reassuring her. In fact, what is done behind you, behind your back, these emotions are transmitted. I'm sure that when you are calm, the track is also calm. That's why I stood there and said: "No matter what, no matter how, just do it for yourself. Fence the best you can," Komashchuk said.

And 16 years after that historic gold medal in Beijing, Olga Harlan made Ukraine the best again, winning her sixth medal at the Olympic Games - no one else has.

And I wanted Olga's heroic deeds to be appreciated at home. And not only by the leadership and officials, but also by ordinary people, fans. Because when a Le Monde journalist asked me who was more popular in our country-Harlan or the leaders of the football team, I honestly answered that it was still the players.

But I added that now everything has to change. And I really want this to happen, because none of the players on the main team has done as much for Ukraine and for the sake of Ukraine as Harlan. And I'm not even talking about his character and will to win...

Earlier OBOZ.UA reported that Harlan became the most titled Ukrainian in the history of the Olympics, beating the achievement of Yana Klochkova.

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