Taekwondo
Tokyo Olympics – Refugee Kimia Alizadeh narrowly misses out on a historic medal
But her journey from being an Olympic medallist for Iran to being a refugee will inspire millions
Kimia Alizaldeh Tokyo Olympics (Source: CNN)
Tokyo Olympics has so far been a stage of shock results, astonishing performances, and some really intriguing storylines showcasing different kinds of struggles athletes go through in their life.
One such story is of refugee Kimia Alizadeh, who won a medal in Taekwondo in 2016 at the Rio Olympics. Here's a look at how she went from representing Iran in Rio to almost winning a medal with the Refugee team in Tokyo.
Journey to the Refugee Olympic team
While Kimia Alizadeh may have missed out on winning a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, her story goes beyond sport and highlights the struggle of a woman athlete in an Islamic country. Kimia had previously won the bronze medal at the Rio 2016 representing Iran and in the process also became the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal.
Kimia had made her country proud at the biggest stage of them all. However, despite all the success, the Iranian could not overlook the treatment of women in her country. It was finally in 2020, that Kimia decided to leave Iran permanently criticizing the oppression which the women faced in her country.
The athlete took to Instagram to explain her decision and said, "I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years. They took me wherever they wanted. I wore whatever they said. Every sentence they ordered me to say, I repeated. Whenever they saw fit, they exploited me"
After leaving Iran and the Olympics getting postponed, Kimia had time on her hand to decide what would be her next move in the sporting world. She eventually took the choice of participating in the Tokyo Olympics as a part of the Refugee Olympic Team, which will be making its second appearance at the Games.
Performance at Tokyo Olympics
Kimia who was competing in the 57kg Taekwondo division started her campaign in the qualification stages by defeating an Iranian opponent, Nahid Kiyani Chandeh, with a scoreline of 18-9.
In the round of 16 stages, Kimia faced two-time Olympic Champion Jade Jones. The reason that the duo faced each other so early in the tournament was that Kimia did not score any qualification points as she was unable to travel for the competitions.
Kimia's refugee status provided her entry into the lowest stage at the Tokyo Olympics. However, she wasn't fazed by facing an athlete of the caliber of Jones and won her bout by 16-12.
Kimia's next opponent was the bronze medallist from 2019 World Championship, Zhou Lijun. It was a closely contested match that went right down the wire and Kimia somehow pulled off the victory by the narrowest of margin winning 9-8.
However, in the semifinal stage, Kimia was defeated quite comfortably by Tatiana Minina. The Russian, who was competing under the Olympic flag, won the game with a scoreline of 10-3. But all hope was not lost for Kimia as she could still achieve history in her bronze medal match, by becoming the first refugee to win an Olympic medal.
The 23-year-old was up against Hatice Kubra Ilgun from Turkey. The game was once again a closely contested one but despite winning the first round Kimia lost the match by two points with the final score reading 8-6 in favor of her Turkish opponent.
