Ukrainian-Russian hug at Paris 2024 Olympics

Olga Kharlan shook hands with her competitor Anna Pashta and hugged her after defeating her in the round of 16 of the women’s sabre fencing competition, as part of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Anna Pashta, who is now representing Azerbaijan in this session, wished her Ukrainian competitor good luck, noting that she has known her for a long time.

“I can’t say we are best friends, but we know each other. We have a good relationship. We hugged. We always supported each other. I wish her to win the gold medal at the Olympics,” Anna Pashta was quoted as saying by Idman.biz.

Olga Kharlan eventually won the bronze medal.

Fencing has become one of those sports that has witnessed many scandals after the admission of Russians to competitions, as the rules of the game stipulate a mandatory salute to the opponent after the end of the fight, however, the Ukrainians do not want to do this.

While the president of the Russian Fencing Federation, Ilgar Mammadov, described the scene as a circus and blamed the athlete for double standards.

“It’s a circus,” Ilgar Mammadov told the Russian website rsport.ria.ru. “I remember that at the IFF Congress in Lausanne in the fall of 2022, Harlan and Bashta sat together and had a nice conversation. Then I approached Olga and asked her if she was afraid that they would be photographed now and she would get into trouble because of that. She replied that Anna was from Azerbaijan, but there might be a problem because I approached her. That made me laugh, because in fact I was born in Baku (the capital of Azerbaijan), while Bashta only has (Azerbaijani) citizenship. It’s okay, we laughed, and it was like a circus.”

While they complained in the Russian Duma that in the current political situation Ukrainian athletes are ready to ignore even their former friends if they represent Russia.

“They usually interact exclusively with Russia. If an athlete from Russia represents another country, the reaction is different. Before, everyone was friends with each other and communicated with each other. Then Ukrainians were told that if they approached Russian athletes, they would be bullied,” complained State Duma deputy Svetlana Zhurova.

Source: “russian.rt.com”