Fencing

One year after the handshake scandal: bronze for Charlan

Olga Charlan(Bild: AFP)

One year after the furor over a refused handshake and her supposed Olympic exit, fencer Olga Charlan has won the first medal for Ukraine at the Summer Games in Paris. 

The 33-year-old won the bronze medal in the sabre competition against South Korea's Choi Sebin on Monday. Last year, Charlan was initially excluded from the World Championships in Milan because she did not want to shake hands with the Russian Anna Smirnova as prescribed at the time.

Olga Charlan(Bild: AP)

Ban was lifted
After heated debates and consultations with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the world fencing federation lifted the disqualification and a ban and replaced the handshake rule with a greeting gesture with the weapons. After the incident, IOC President Thomas Bach, himself an Olympic fencing champion in 1976, promised Charlan a starting place in Paris if she failed to qualify.

Olga Charlan (r.) took bronze behind France's Manon Apithy-Brunet (m.) and Sara Balzer.(Bild: AP)

"Every medal is like gold. I don't care if it's bronze, it's gold," said Charlan after her success in the Grand Palais. Her precious metal was "a good start for all our athletes who are here, because it's really hard when your country is at war," said the team Olympic champion from Beijing 2008.