Fencing scandal: Olympic medalist Olga Kharlan was disqualified from the World Cup for not greeting her Russian rival

The Fencing Federation (FIE) is one of those that allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate as neutrals in international competitions and a scandal occurred at the World Cup in Italy after the match between Ukraine’s Olga Kharlan and Russia’s Anna Smirnova.

Kharlan received permission from the Ukrainian Ministry of Sports to face Russia’s Smirnova, whom she beat 15-7 to advance through the round and face Bulgarian Yoana Ilieva. However, after the final thrust, the Olympic medalist in Beijing 2008, London and Rio 2016 decided to greet Smirnova by offering her the sword and not the hand as required by the regulations, which caused the conflicting situation.

Seeing that the judges were not taking the decision to take out the black card and disqualify Kharlan, Smirnova took a chair and sat for almost an hour on the court to watch the fighting continue. The unusual protest forced the organization to relocate the rest of the duels.

Finally, Kharlan was disqualified for not greeting her rival as indicated in the FIE regulations and the one who ended up benefiting was the Bulgarian Ilieva when she went to the round of 16 without having to shoot. Smirnova also stayed out of the World Cup.

“The decision of the International Fencing Federation is the manifestation of a total lack of empathy and is absolutely scandalous,” said Mikhailo Podoliak, advisor to Volodymir Zelensky, president of Ukraine.

The day before this conflict between Kharlan and Smirnova, the Ukrainian Igor Reizlin decided to withdraw from the World Cup before facing the Russian Vadim Anokhin. The bronze medalist in Tokyo 2020 in the specialty of sword presented a medical exemption, as expressed by the International Federation.

Athletes from Ukraine were forbidden to face those from Russia, but this situation changed in the case of Kharlan and, beyond the scandal that ended the fight with Smirnova, it shines a light of hope thinking about the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the ever-latent boycott if the International Olympic Committee allows Russians and Belarusians to participate as neutrals.

Fencing was one of the sports in which, for the first time, the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were seen: in February of last year, a few days before the start of the war, the Ukrainian team decided to withdraw from a competition in Cairo (Egypt) so as not to face the Russians.

The scandal at the World Fencing Championship comes after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced they won’t invite the Olympic Committees of Russia and Belarus to the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, even though it still keeps open the possibility that they can compete under the neutral flag.

“We have to monitor that strict conditions are accepted and that we don’t wait for a fixed day to behave well and then do something else. They have to respect the letter and the spirit, understand why we have imposed these strict conditions. When we have the confidence, we will make the decision,” said Thomas Bach, president of the IOC.

The response from Russia was very harsh. “The IOC has gone from being an organization that defended the interests of athletes to a structure in which gerontocracy and a monopoly on chosen sanctions flourish,” Dmitri Chernishenko, Russian Deputy Prime Minister, told the TASS agency, and said: “We have not taken a decision on the participation of these neutral and individual athletes in the Olympic Games.”