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Olha Kharlan not only defended the honor of Ukraine but also "decolonized" great sport

Oksana ZabuzhkoSport
Olha Kharlan not only defended the honor of Ukraine but also "decolonized" great sport

I turned Olha Kharlan's video message on and almost cried with emotion, pride and gratitude.

Here is the text.

I have written about it here before. I was struck by the fact that the Russian word "friendship wins" (euphemism for a draw in sports competitions) has a very different equivalent in European languages: honour wins, meaning that people fight not for "friendship" but for "honor" (the fight was not based on drunk quarrels and ended with "make friends, make friends and never, never break friends"  but from the face-to-face tournaments, where some things are inadmissible, lower than the knight's honor...).

During the existance of Cossack Sich, people used to say, "for honor and glory, for the Cossack deed". So, in my opinion, Olha Kharlan not only defended the honor of Ukraine but also returned the moment of true beauty to the great sport which had been robbed of its European values long ago (!). I mean, she literally "decolonized" it with a single gesture...

Judging by the reaction of the IOC and the FIE's shameful babble about the "Olympic spirit", they felt it too.

Thank you, Olya. Glory to Ukraine.

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