Ukraine wins its first gold medal of the Paris Olympics, in women's team saber fencing

PARIS (AP) — Olga Kharlan got the winning touch for Ukraine's first gold medal of the Paris Olympics, ripped off her fencing mask and sank to her knees.

When she got up again, it was to dance on the piste wrapped in a Ukrainian flag and join teammates Alina Komashchuk, Olena Kravatska and Yuliia Bakastova in the celebrations.

Kharlan went in for the final leg of the women's team saber final with South Korea on Saturday needing to turn around a three-point deficit to keep her team in the contest.

She'd been thinking of Ukrainian troops fighting on the front lines as motivation, trying to keep her own emotions in check “like a robot.” And then she heard the crowd in Paris chanting her name.

“I couldn’t believe it. They’re shouting ‘Olga, Olga!'” she said. “It’s beautiful. Thank you, Paris.”

Facing South Korea's Jeon Ha-young, Kharlan said she realized the key right then was to relax. She did just that, and scored the eight points Ukraine needed for a 45-42 victory.

“At some point I said ‘I’m going to have fun, I’m going to enjoy this moment,’” Kharlan said. “I enjoyed all the fencing and just went for it.”

It was Kharlan's second medal in Paris after an individual saber bronze, and the sixth overall from five Summer Games for the country's most decorated Olympian. She hadn't won a gold medal since 2008 in Beijing, when she was 17.

Kharlan and her team were six points down early in the gold-medal match before rallying for the win. Kharlan went a combined 22-10 from her three matchups in the nine-leg final.

“We cheer for our athletes and support them as a nation. Ukraine knows how to inspire both at the Olympic Games and times like these!” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a message of congratulations on social media.

Ukraine had two medals in Paris before Saturday's final; a silver in shooting from Serhiy Kulish and the bronze that Kharlan won Monday.

Now Kharlan is heading back to Ukraine next week for the first time since April to see her parents.

She'll leave Paris with her two medals a year after she was disqualified at the world championships for refusing to shake the hand of a Russian fencer, something which put her Olympic qualification in jeopardy. The International Olympic Committee stepped in to allow Kharlan a direct spot at the Paris Games.

“One year ago, I was almost done with fencing because I was disqualified,” she said. “This is the story that has a very happy end. I would like to say thank you to everyone who made it happen. And believe, work, never give up — like Ukraine.”

That incident at the world championships highlighted the tension over whether to allow Russian athletes to keep competing following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. There are 15 Russians competing at the Paris Olympics, but as Individual Neutral Athletes. None of them are competing in fencing.

More than two years on from Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has its smallest Olympic team since independence from the Soviet Union, with 142 athletes across all sports.

Japan beat France 45-40 for the bronze medal, even though the French team had individual gold medalist Manon Apithy-Brunet and silver medalist Sara Balzer.

Associated Press journalist Hanna Arhirova contributed to this report.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

South Korea's Jeon Hayoung competes with Ukraine's Alina Komashchuk in the women's team sabre final match during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

South Korea's Jeon Hayoung, left, competes with Ukraine's Olga Kharlan in the women's team sabre final match during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Ukraine's Olga Kharlan celebrates after defeating South Korea during the women's team sabre final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Ukraine's Olga Kharlan celebrates after defeating South Korea during the women's team sabre final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

South Korea's Jeon Hayoung, left, competes with Ukraine's Alina Komashchuk in the women's team sabre final match during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Ukraine's Olga Kharlan celebrates after winning the women's team sabre final match against South Korea during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Ukraine's Olga Kharlan celebrates after winning the women's team sabre final match against South Korea during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Ukraine's Olga Kharlan celebrates after winning the women's team sabre final match against South Korea during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday. In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters.

It’s been more than a year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 people captive inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

In solidarity with Hamas, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged cross-border fire with Israel almost daily for the past year. Israel escalated its campaign against the group in recent weeks.

Rumors circulated for weeks over head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status after an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.

Here's the latest:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The funeral of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general killed alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah drew the largest crowd of top leaders in the paramilitary organization together Tuesday for the first time since Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel.

The Guard’s leadership hasn’t been as visible in the two weeks since Iran’s Oct. 1 attack on Israel. The Guard is the main power behind Iran’s theocracy and oversees its arsenal of ballistic missiles — which would be crucial in any future attack on Israel.

At the funeral in Tehran for Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, the Guard’s chief commander, Gen. Hossein Salami, attended alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and the head of the country’s judiciary. Other Guard generals also attended, including Gen. Esmail Qaani of the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force, about whom rumors had circulated for days regarding his status after the strike that killed Nasrallah.

At least two prominent Guard generals were not on hand: Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of Guard’s aerospace division that oversees its missile program, and Gen. Ali Reza Tangsiri, commander of the Guard’s navy, did not attend.

Iran offered no explanation for their absence, though Israel has threatened to carry out a serious retaliatory strike against Iran.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday.

A strike early Tuesday hit a house in the southern town of Beni Suhaila, killing at least 10 people from one extended family, according to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. The dead include three children and one woman, according to hospital records. An Associated Press camera operator at the hospital counted the bodies.

In the nearby town of Fakhari, a strike hit a house early Tuesday, killing five people, including three children and a woman, according to the European Hospital, where the casualties were taken.

The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of sheltering in civilian areas.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters Tuesday.

Adel al-Deqes said his relatives tried to move to another place in Jabaliya in the morning, but the military shelled them.

“We don’t know who died and who is still alive,” he said.

Ahmed Awda, another Jabaliya resident, said they heard “constant bombing and gunfire” overnight and Tuesday morning. He said the military destroyed many buildings in the eastern and northern parts of the camp, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

“They bombed many buildings; some of them empty buildings,” he said.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has appeared in television footage aired Tuesday by Iranian state television.

Rumors circulated for weeks over Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status in the time since an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.

While Iranian state television did not acknowledge the rumors, it made a point to film Qaani for over a minute and later share the footage from the airport ceremony online.

Qaani was on hand for the repatriation to Iran of the body of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, 58, who was killed in the airstrike.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australia’s government has imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on five Iranians contributing to the country’s missile defense program, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Tuesday.

Iran’s launch of at least 180 ballistic missiles against Israel on Oct. 1 was “a dangerous escalation that increased the risk of a wider regional war,” Wong said in a statement.

The fresh sanctions target two directors and a senior official in Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization, the director of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group, and the commercial director of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group.

The decision brings to 200 the number of Iran-linked individuals and entities now sanctioned by Australia.

“Australia will continue to hold Iran to account for its reckless and destabilizing actions,” Wong said.

People chant slogans during the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People and officials attend the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Commander of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, Gen. Esmail Qaani, mourns during the funeral ceremony of the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Mourners carry the coffin of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' deputy commander Brigadier Gen. Abbas Nilforushan who died alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month during his funeral in Karbala, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)

Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Pro-Israel protesters holds Israeli flags as demonstrators protest Israel's war against Hamas outside the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A displaced family fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sits next to their tent on Beirut's corniche, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sit in front of the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Mourners carry a picture of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during the funeral procession of their relatives, in Maisara near the northern coastal town of Byblos, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight

Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight