Olga Kharlan At 17, she led her Ukranian fencing team to the Gold Medal. How do you top that?

     When Olga Kharlan was a child, she didn’t care much for fencing. “I began to practice fencing when I was 10,” she remembers. “At that time I ceased practicing ballroom dancing. Initially, it was my godfather who proposed fencing to my mother. He is a sabre coach. My mother agreed, but she had to force me to train. Sometimes, I went to training and I would intentionally forget my fencing shoes at home.”
     Mom kept Olga on track, and within three years, Kharlan discovered her passion for the sport. “At the the Ukrainian Junior Championship, when I was 13 years old, I fenced with a strong athlete. I won with one stab. It was my first win, and it was very important for me. That win was like a powerful incentive for me to enter the world of big-time sports. I understood that I could beat stronger athletes.
     As Kharlan got better, it opened up a new world. Coming from the small town of Mykolaiv, Ukraine, where people worked hard, but could barely afford tot travel, Kharlan began to see the world. Her fencing career took her everywhere from Las Vegas to Vietnam. But the pinnacle of it all took place at age 17, when Kharlan led her three-woman Ukranian fencing team to Gold in Beijing.
     “When we won the gold medal, my whole life turned over!” she says. “Both my sport life and my private life. My dream came true: I became the Olympic champion. And then my social life started. Now I am invited to different events, I do interviews like this. I began to make a lot of money. It has been great.”
    Training can consume the life of an Olympic Gold Medalist, and it’s no different for fencers. “Every morning we go for a jog and do some exercise,” Kharlan says. “Later we have a three-hour training session, lunch, and a two-and-a-half hour training in the afternoon. We also take individual lessons from our coaches as well.”
     Kharlan is ready to pay the price. Now a fencing veteran who will turn 23 in September, she’s hopeful that she can help lead the Ukrainian fencing team back to the Gold Medal podium in Rio de Janiero in 2016. And as for what Kharlan’s plans are for the future? “I want to continue my career in fencing as long as I’m healthy enough to do it,” Kharlan says. “Our sport has an athlete from Italy named Valentina Vizzali. During her career, she has won six Olympic Gold Medals, and now she is 39 years old, but she is going to fence in Rio in 2016. She’s a living illustration of how an athlete can stay in the sport.” And when it’s over, who knows?  “To tell the truth, I have never thought about it. I live my own life and I like it! Maybe, if I had continued to practice ballroom dancing, I could become a good dancer, but I am very pleased with my life now.”