By Kayhan Life
Saman Soltani, a refugee kayaker originally from Iran, was one of the athletes competing in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as part of the Olympic Refugee Team – which participated for the third time ever in the Games. Of the 37 male and female competitors on the team, 12 were originally from Iran and 2 were from Afghanistan.
Soltani, 28, made it to the quarter-finals at the Paris 2024 single 500-meter event on August 7. She then bowed out of the competition, finishing 6th in her heat in Quarterfinal 3 with a time of 2:01.43 (the World Best record in 2024 was 1:46.19 by Aimee Fisher from New Zealand).
The Games ended August 11 in a ceremony in which Tom Cruise abseiled from the towering roof of the Stade de France stadium and whisked the Olympic flag off to Los Angeles for the 2028 games.
As the Games were about to begin, Soltani posted an Instagram video of herself in Paris and wrote:
“After 27 years of dreaming and trying, I finally became an Olympian. I can’t find any words to describe my happiness. Thank you all for your incredible support and positive energy. I love you all. Iranian, refugee and proud. Dream big and keep believing in yourself.”
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In an interview last week, she said she was in a good place and “really happy.”
“I’m representing 120 million refugees all over the world. We want to say, when the situation looks bad, when you feel like life is (ending), it’s not true,” she told the Japan Times in the Aug. 7 interview. “You just have to keep believing in yourself, in your abilities. We want to give hope all over the world that it is possible. You can do it. If you can dream it, you can achieve it.”
The Refugee Olympic Team was created in 2015, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) created a Refugee Emergency Fund to enable refugees to compete in the Olympic Games under the IOC flag, and represent the more than 100 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. The team has grown from 10 members at the 2016 Rio Games to 37 in Paris.
“Clearly, Iranians are good at sport and have been able to secure a good place in the team, which I am delighted about,” she told the French weekly magazine Le Point on August 7. “I personally had no particular expectations, but I had good results. So I’m more than happy because this is my greatest dream come true.”
Soltani wanted to make her parents proud by kayaking at Paris 2024 and that is what she did. Her journey to the Olympics is remarkable.
She started out as an Iranian national champion in artistic swimming. However, since she was not allowed to compete internationally as a woman, at 18, she switched to kayaking as it was more accessible to women in Iran, and won silver at the Asian Under-23 championships in 2018.
In the summer of 2022, invited to attend an artistic swimming camp in Barcelona – a golden opportunity for her to reconnect with her passion for artistic swimming – Soltani posted videos of her performance in a bathing suit as well as photos in a bikini on Instagram.
As she prepared to return to Iran, she received a call from her parents who told her not to come home to avoid arrest by the morality police. She called her only European friend, Uwe Schlokat, and flew to meet him in Austria, where she was granted asylum and has since trained with the Austrian Canoe Federation, winning a gold medal at the Austrian national championships.
“In one second, your life can change,” Soltani told the International Canoe Federation in an interview published on their website. “It’s the hardest part of my life. When I get tired in my training, I just imagine them there, because it is so hard. I never know when I can see them again. I want to get to the Olympics so I can bring them here.”
The Refugee Olympic Team for Paris 2024 was selected by the IOC Executive Board. To be eligible, athletes had to compete at an elite level in their host nation and their refugee status must be confirmed by the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The team competes under the Olympic flag and participated in the Parade of Nations during the opening ceremony of the Games on July 26. (It was on the second boat that floated down the river Seine, behind Greece.)
The Refugee Olympic Team for Paris 2024 competed across 12 sports, including athletics, badminton, boxing, breaking, canoe slalom, cycling, judo, karate, swimming, Taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling. The other Refugee Olympic Team members of Iranian and Afghani origin included:
- Amir Rezanejad Hassanjani (Canoe Slalom) who started canoeing at seven and has been a German refugee since 2021;
- Dina Pouryounes Langeroudi (Taekwondo) who was a member of the Iranian national team before leaving Iran in 2015 for the Netherlands;
- Dorsa Yavarivafa (Badminton) who was introduced to badminton at nine and started winning tournaments in Tehran, before leaving for the UK in 2018;
- Hadi Tiranvalipour (Taekwondo) who was a member of the Iranian national taekwondo team before becoming a refugee in Italy in 2022;
- Iman Mahdavi (Wrestling) who was a seven-time national junior wrestling champion in Iran before fleeing for Italy in 2020;
- Jamal Valizadeh (Wrestling) who was a national-level wrestler before leaving Iran in 2014 and arriving in France in 2016;
- Kasra Mehdipournejad (Taekwondo) who now lives and trains in Germany, having won several gold medals in 2018 and 2019;
- Mahboubeh Barbari Yharfi (Judo) who was a member of the Iranian National Judo Team before seeking asylum in Germany in 2018;
- Mohammad Rashnonezhad (Judo) who trained with Iran’s national team before seeking asylum in the Netherlands in 2017;
- Omid Ahmadisafa (Boxing) who was a member of the Iranian national boxing and kickboxing teams before seeking asylum in Germany where he now trains with the German National Team;
- Yekta Jamali Galeh (Weightlifting) who competed at national junior levels before fleeing to Germany in 2022.
- Amir Ansari (Cycling) who grew up in Afghanistan before seeking refuge in Sweden in 2015 and training with the Stockholm Cycling Club and participating in national and international championships;
- Manizha Talash (Breaking) who grew up in Kabul where she discovered breakdancing at 17 before fleeing her country in 2021 and later seeking refuge in Spain.
