Ukrainian fencer Olha Charlan has called for resistance to the participation of Russian athletes in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in order to make the games “a fair competition and not another beachhead for Russia.” The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided on Friday to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in Paris as so-called “individual neutral athletes”.
Charlan, one of the most famous Ukrainian athletes, wrote on Instagram on Sunday evening that she wanted to campaign against the participation of Russian athletes: “Over 370 Ukrainian athletes were killed. Nine Ukrainian cities were completely destroyed by the Russian invaders. Attention – more than 3,000 rockets were fired by Russia at peaceful cities in Ukraine. They hit schools, maternity hospitals, theaters, kindergartens and people’s homes. Knowing this, the IOC (which independently excluded the Russian committee from its organization) decides to allow Russian athletes involved in the war to enter the Olympic Games in a neutral manner.”
It continued: “What emotions does it trigger? Unfortunately, it doesn’t surprise me, but it makes me angry. I want to scream and ask a lot of questions: ‘Why?’ Why do people who march in military parades and take orders from murderous generals have the right to stand alongside the world’s sporting elite? But it won’t help. Actions will help. We will do everything to ensure that both the athletes and the national Olympic committee and other countries join in overturning this shameful decision.”
The 33-year-old Charlan, who was born in Mykolaiv, won the gold medal with the saber team at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 and silver in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She also won individual bronze medals in 2012 and 2016 and a total of five individual and team world championship titles. At the most recent World Championships in Milan in July, she was disqualified by the International Fencing Federation because her Russian opponent, who was competing under a neutral flag, tried to force a handshake, which Charlan refused.
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The Russian entourage then obtained Charlan’s disqualification. Given the international headlines generated by the campaign, IOC President Thomas Bach guaranteed Olha Charlan the right to compete at the Paris Olympics in a personal letter.
