Name: Olga Kharlan
Education: Mykolaiv Physical Culture College
Profession: Sabre fencer
Did you know? In 2010-2014 Kharlan was a Party of Regions lawmaker of Mykolaiv City Council. She has left the Party of Regions in 2014.
Olga Kharlan, 26, was born in Mykolaiv, a city of 500,000 people some 400 kilometers south of Kyiv.
She started sports at age 9 and, by 15, became a member of the Ukrainian national fencing team in 2005.
In 2007 she won the junior World Cup in fencing.
In 2008, she went to the Olympic Games in Beijing as part of the national fencing team. In the final fight, Ukrainian fencers had to compete against the Chinese team. The 17-year-old Kharlan beat Chinese fencer Tan Ksyu and brought victory to her team, as well as the first Olympic gold ever to the Ukrainian female fencers.
In 2009, Kharlan won the title of the Champion of Europe.
In 2010, Kharlan won three Grand Prix of international sabre fencing tournaments and managed to get to second place among the top five strongest female fencers of the world.
Kharlan’s explanation for her success: hard work.
“It is like you are fighting and fencing against yourself. Improve your fencing technique and push yourself to training in any weather and life circumstances. It is all about telling yourself that you “must!” Kharlan told the Kyiv Post.
The Ukrainian sabre fencing female team won silver in the Olympics 2016 in Rio, while its leader, Kharlan, brought home bronze to Ukraine.
Kharlan has more than 15 international sabre fencing awards and five state awards.
Ukrainian national fencing team coach Valeriy Shturbabin has described Kharlan as a “wolf cub” because of her aggressive style of fencing and attacks. After she gained fame, Russian fencer Sofia Velikaya: “Who is this new little beast that growls on the track and wrests out every victory with her teeth?”
In 2010, Kharlan became a Party of Regions lawmaker in Mykolaiv City Council. In 2013 she told Svitske Zhytta TV Show that she made such decision because that was the only way to promote fencing and build a training base for fencers in her city.
She was shocked by the police violence against EuroMaidan Revolution demonstrators and decided to leave the Party of Regions and politics in January 2014.
In 2015, Kharlan married sabre fencer champion Dmytro Boyko. She is quite well aware of the sacrifices she made for success.
“I had not seen my family for months, suffered from pain because in professional sports you can’t go without traumas. I spent so much personal time for training. But you forget about all you had to overcome when you’re holding the World Champion or the Olympic medal in your hands. This is an award for everything,” Kharlan said.
