“My dream is to be an Olympic champion”
At the Paris 2024 Olympic Taekwondo Games, which begin on July 7, there is an athlete with a unique resume.
Farzad Mansouri, 22, was Afghanistan’s flag bearer at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago and will be the flag bearer for the Refugee Olympic Team at the Games.
“My dream is to be an Olympic champion,” Mansouri said at the Paris Olympic taekwondo press conference on Friday at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, “and I am grateful that I can continue to train and compete with the help of the refugee team.”
Mansouri became a refugee when the Taliban, an extremist militant group, rose to power in Afghanistan. He traveled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a U.S. military transport plane from Kabul International Airport, where a fellow taekwondo athlete, Mohammed Zan Sultani, was killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul International Airport.
“I am still proud to have competed under the Afghan flag at the Tokyo Olympics,” says Mansouri, who has become disillusioned with the sad state of affairs in Afghanistan. My heart still beats for my country,” he said, “but now I’m just trying to do my best for my team of 37 refugees from 11 countries.”
Mansouri finds great solace in the sport that has become his life. Recalling his older brother, who first taught 파워볼사이트 추천 him the sport, he says, “In taekwondo, I learned the value of respect, not fighting with anyone. The taekwondo uniform is also the best clothes for me.”
With the opportunity to compete on the big stage again, his first goal is a medal. In Tokyo, he competed in the heaviest weight class (+80 kilograms) and was eliminated in the round of 16, but this time he dropped down to 80 kilograms to improve his medal chances. Cameroonian female boxer Cindy N’Gamba, 25, won the first medal for the refugee team, and he is determined to go for gold. If Mansuri wants to win gold, he’ll have to get past South Korea’s Seo Gun-woo, the reigning taekwondo champion.
“I have fought Seo once before in an open competition. He was a great athlete. If we meet again at the Olympics, I will respect him, but I will try to beat him. I want to win a medal at the Olympics. It is my dream to become an Olympic champion,” he said.
Meanwhile, taekwondo will begin four days of competition on Sunday with the men’s 58-kilogram and women’s 49-kilogram events. “This is the first time taekwondo has been competed in such a beautiful and magnificent venue since the sport was recognized at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games,” said WTF President Joong Won Choi, “and I am sure the athletes will put on a show like never before.”