Scandal duel between Ukrainian Olga Kharlan and our Anna Smirnova at the World Fencing Championships in Milan, he forced the fans of the first to attack the social networks of the Russian woman. Ukrainians in insane anger threaten Smirnova and her family with reprisal.
What did the Ukrainian woman do? And it's not about the sports component. Ukrainian Igor Reyzlin refused to fight against Russian Vadim Anokhin, as a result of which our fencer made it to the next stage of the tournament. However, a day later Ukrainian Olga Harlan went to fight with our Anna Smirnova. What has changed?
Just between the two events, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine updated an order that allowed their athletes to take part in competitions with the Russians. It is not clear exactly what caused the change of position. Perhaps Harlan herself, who is one of the leading athletes in Ukraine, somehow influenced the local leadership.
However, this is not so important. The Olympic champion went to battle with the Russian woman and even won with a score of 15:7. And then, instead of shaking hands, she put her saber in the direction of Smirnova. It looked strange and even somewhat dangerous. But the main detail was different. According to the rules of the International Fencing Federation (FIE), after the fight, the athletes must salute each other and shake hands. If one or both fencers refuse to comply with the rules, the match will not be considered completed. The referee punishes them, up to disqualification.
Smirnova waited 50 minutes for a handshake, the organizers even brought her a chair. She filed a protest against the actions of the Ukrainian, but the judges still upheld the result. The Russian Fencing Federation (FFR) will try to achieve justice, but so far the situation is such that Smirnova leaves the tournament. However, Harlan also suffered in this conflict.
Will the FIE react to the threats to the Russian woman? The Ukrainian woman received a black card from the organizers and was disqualified from the tournament, thus not entering the duel with the Bulgarian athlete in the next round. Now she faces a suspension from the competition for up to two months. President of the Fencing Federation of Ukraine Mikhail Ilyashev said that their team would challenge the decision.
The Ukrainians did not find anything better than to attack the social networks of the Russian fencer. There they massively threatened Anna with reprisals, wished her and her loved ones dead. What Harlan's fans wrote there should not have passed any censorship. I would like to hope that the FIE will somehow react to this behavior. If in football fans are forbidden to attend matches for insulting players on social networks and even start cases against them, then it would be nice to somehow punish the madmen. language. However, this did not stop people, and they began to attack Smirnova's page in general everywhere. It is noteworthy that Russian sports fans did not imitate such behavior. In the social networks of Ukrainian Harlan, her compatriots mostly rejoice at what she did with the Russian woman. That's the difference.