Ukrainian star Kharlan hopes fighting spirit delivers Olympic gold
Twice, the 33-year-old quadruple world champion, who has two individual Olympic bronze medals, as well as a 2008 team sabre gold, came close to missing out on the Games.
The Italy-based Kharlan thought of quitting the sport in December, 2022, when her fortunes were at a low ebb as she feared for the safety of her family back in Ukraine following the Russian invasion that year.
A bronze medal at the Grand Prix in Tunis in early 2023 persuaded her to carry on.
"I thought, 'OK, I can do it, I will fight'. And of course a lot of support came from Ukraine," she told AFP at the European championships in June.
"You can't imagine how much they follow us, those soldiers who defend us in the front line."
In a potential body blow to her Olympic dreams, she was then disqualified at the world championships for refusing to shake the hand of her Russian opponent, Anna Smirnova, costing her invaluable qualifying points for the Games.
However, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, himself an Olympic winning fencer, came to the rescue offering her "his full support" and an automatic place in Paris because of her "unique situation".
"In the end of the story, it's not that bad," said Kharlan who will go for gold on Monday in the individual sabre event.
"But this was one of the worst days of my life. I was desperate, I had the worst cry in my life, for a couple of hours," she recalled.
"I was sitting on the ground in the Ukrainian box. I felt powerless, with both anger and sorrow at the same time.
"I felt empty because I fought to suspend Russians. I thought it was my fate not to go to the Olympics."
Kharlan said there is an extra motivation to her Olympic campaign.
"When the competitions come, you want so hard to prove something, you want to win for your country, for your parents," she told AFP in June.
