With or Without Hijab: Iranian Athletes Excel in Olympics
Iranian women have made history in 2024 Paris Olympics by winning two medals in taekwondo but it could have been three (read on). Nahid KIYANI CHANDEH has won a silver and Mobina NEMATZADEH a bronze medal. Interestingly, in the women's 57-kilogram division, Kiyani defeated Kimia Alizadeh, an old friend and former Iranian taekwondo teammate who defected Iran and now has Bulgarian citizenship. One wore a veil (Nahid), the other (Kimia) fought with her head bare. Alizadeh claimed a bronze medal for Bulgaria which would have been Iran's had she not chosen exile over mandatory scarf. Alizadeh and Kiyani had a friendly selfie together in the medals ceremony. The https://news.kodoom.com/iran-sports/%D9%... sports news anchor on Iranian TV was fired on live TV shortly after he shared his sadness to see an Iranian athlete competing for another country.
Alizadeh, who was the first Iranian female athlete to win an Olympic medal at age 18, announced she was leaving her country four years ago, and accused Iranian officials of sexism and criticized wearing the mandatory hijab headscarf. After winning the Bronze in Paris, Alizadeh shared her heartfelt gratitude to all Iranians who wished her well during the Olympics: "I cried. I hug you from a distance. I belong to Iran forever..."
In wrestling, although Iran's renowned wrestler Hassan Yazdani took home a silver in the men’s freestyle 86kg, he made a new record in Iran's wrestling history by attending his third Olympics final. The following bilingual video by United World Wrestling is about Yazdani's training and background (For English subtitles, you need to turn on the close caption):
Iranian athletes won 12 medals, placing them 17th in the overall medal rankings together with Ukraine, which also won 12 medals and just ahead of Sweden and Kenya with 11 and Belgium with 10 medals. Most of Iran's medals come from wrestling, including two golds by Saeid ESMAEILI LEIVESI and Mohammadhadi SARAVI, four silvers by Alireza MOHMADIPIANI, Rahman AMOUZADKHALILI, Amir Hossein ZARE and Hassan YAZDANI and two bronzes by Amin MIRZAZADEH and Amirali AZARPIRA. In Men's taekwondo, Arian SALIMI won a gold and Mehran BARKHORDARI a silver.
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