The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has issued a special invitation to a Ukrainian fencer to take part in the Paris Olympics next year, after she was disqualified from a tournament for refusing to shake hands with her defeated Russian opponent.
The IOC president, Thomas Bach, a former Olympic champion fencer himself, wrote in person to Olha Kharlan to make a “unique exception” to Olympic qualifying procedures, in an unusually emotional letter.
“As a fellow fencer, it is impossible for me to imagine how you feel at this moment,” Bach said. “The war against your country, the suffering of the people in Ukraine … all this is a roller coaster of emotions and feelings. It is admirable how you are managing this incredibly difficult situation, and I would like to express my full support for you.”
The letter was copied to the Ukrainian fencing federation, its national Olympic committee and the International Fencing Federation, which had disqualified Kharlan from the world fencing championship in Milan on Thursday, after she had offered to touch sabres but not shake hands with the Russian fencer she had beaten, Anna Smirnova. Smirnova staged a 50-minute protest on the fencing piste in protest at the snub.
Bach said that without the qualification points from the world championships, Kharlan would not normally be able to take part in the Paris Olympics.
“Given your unique situation, the International Olympic Committee will allocate an additional quota place to you for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, in case you will not be able to qualify in the remaining period,” Bach wrote. “We make this unique exception also because the ongoing procedures will in no case make up for the qualification points you missed because of your disqualification.”
The decision was welcomed by Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who had called on the International Fencing Federation to reverse its decision.
“Truth and dignity prevail when we all stand up for them and fight as one,” Kuleba wrote on social media.
