Ukrainian fencer's disqualification: Ukraine warned FIE, and Russian athlete committed provocation

Ukraine warned the International Fencing Federation (FIE) on the matter of its athletes refusing to shake hands with their counterparts from Russia, but on 26 July, the FIE dropped the opportunity to do a mandatory ‘salute’ by just tapping sabres. The very next day at the championship in Milan, Ukrainian athlete Olha Kharlan was disqualified after a provocation from her Russian opponent. 

Source: Suspilne Sport (Ukraine's public broadcaster) with reference to the comments by the head coach of the Ukrainian fencing team Natalia Konrad, Ukraine’s Minister of Youth and Sports Vadim Gutzeit and President of the Fencing Federation of Ukraine Mykhailo Illiashev

Details: Gutzeit, the Minister of Youth and Sports, as well as the head of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, said that Ukraine warned FIE in regards to Ukrainian athletes refusing to shake hands with their Russian opponents, yet in the end, the Federation punished Kharlan with disqualification for ‘disrespecting’ the Russian athlete.

Quote: "Yesterday [26 July – ed.], I had a conversation with the International Fencing Federation. And I stressed there that our athletes will not shake hands with Russian athletes under a neutral flag. Yesterday there was a meeting of the [Ukrainian – ed.] federation: the president, the head coach met with the members of the international federation. They also stressed that our athletes will not shake hands, they will provide a ‘salute,’ greetings and leave the piste. What we saw is the provocation from the athlete under a neutral flag.

We saw what she did: a straightforward provocation against Olha Kharlan. She came up, made a provocation, held out her hand for a long time, and waited [for Olha to shake it]. There are cases of fencing athletes when sportsmen from Israel and the Arab world meet: they do not shake hands, tapping their sabres [instead] and going their separate ways.

Here we saw that she provoked Olha, the organising committee. And, unfortunately, they [the organising committee – ed.], knowing that this would happen, because they were warned, disqualified Olha after a long break, they argued for a long time."

Details: Gutzeit stressed that the judges had already awarded the victory to Kharlan in a fight with the fencer from Russia, and the organisers of the championship decided to punish the Ukrainian with disqualification.

Ольгу Харлан дискваліфікували, бо не подала руку росіянці.

Спочатку українку допустили у наступний раунд, але потім не дозволили вийти на бій проти болгарки, яка автоматично пройшла далі.@FIE_fencing, an absolutely horrible decision. Shame on you.

pic.twitter.com/KRi0IXgGE1

— Tribuna.com Україна (@tribunaua) July 27, 2023

Mykhailo Illiashev, President of the Fencing Federation of Ukraine, confirmed that the decision to disqualify Kharlan was made by the technical directorate of the championship.

Ukraine appealed. "We hope for a positive decision, but we have no illusions about this," Illiashev added.

Natalia Konrad, the head coach of the Ukrainian fencing team, said that earlier the rules indicated that athletes could simply tap sabres, but at the very last moment these were changed. 

Konrad Quote: "Indeed, there is such a thing in the rules that after a bout, you need to give the ‘salute’ and shake hands. But, for example, when COVID-19 rules were in place, tapping sabres was enough. This was approved by the FIE regulations. As far as I'm aware, there was an emergency FIE meeting yesterday (26 July – ed.) and they dropped that rule without telling anyone.

Was it on purpose? I think so. After all, yesterday (26 July – ed.) morning at the world championship, there was a meeting of the panel of judges, where they said that tomorrow (27 July – ed.) there could be an attempt to discriminate against us, there could be a conflict. Judges were instructed to be more loyal, that is, if not everything on the piste goes as required by the rules, then they need to act without aggression, not pay attention to it."

Details: According to the coach, after the situation with Smirnova occurred, the International Fencing Federation issued an ultimatum to Kharlan: in case of refusal to shake hands with her Russian opponent, she would be disqualified. 

According to Konrad, "if someone does not really want to support us, they will always resort to the rules."

"Olha did not shake hands [with Smirnova], offered [tapping] her weapon to the ‘neutral’ girl, but she did not want it, stayed on the piste, and they started filing a protest to the FIE – although the judge recorded Olha’s victory, and it appeared on the scoreboard. Then some time passed, we were called and told that there are two ways to solve the issue: either you shake hands, or there will be a disqualification. Of course, we tried to explain that this is a non-standard situation, that there should be other ways to solve it," said the coach.

In her opinion, there was a lot of pressure from representatives of Russia.

Olha Kharlan enjoys the support of Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and many other people.

Українці не бажають тиснути руку росіянам, які щодня на нашій землі вбивають наших людей. Ольга Харлан заслужено перемогла. Проте підступність росіян виразно проявляється навіть у спорті. Закликаємо @FIE_fencing відновити участь Харлан у змаганнях. pic.twitter.com/GnEJ7VlXHA

— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) July 27, 2023

Background:

• On 26 July,  the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine stopped  boycotting the international competitions where Russians and Belarusians perform in neutral status, and allowed Ukrainian athletes to participate in such competitions. 
• On 27 July, Ukrainian fencer Olha Kharlan was disqualified from the World Fencing Championships in Milan after  showing "lack of respect" for her Russian opponent. At the start of the tournament, Kharlan defeated Russian athlete Anna Smirnova and refused to shake hands after their duel. 
• Elina Svitolina, a famous Ukrainian tennis player, supported the decision of Olha Kharlan not to shake hands with her Russian opponent after their duel.
• Ukrainians used social networks to express support for Olha. 

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