Zakia Khudadadi made background on Thursday at the Paris Paralympics by ending up being the initial professional athlete from the Refugee Paralympic Team to win a medal.
Khudadadi won bronze in the females’s 47kg group after beatingTurkey’s Ekinci Nurcihan When the last buzzer seemed at the Grand Palais in main Paris, Khudadadi emerged in happiness, tossing her headgear and mouth piece right into the air.
“It was a surreal moment, my heart started racing when I realized I had won the bronze,” Khudadadi claimed, her voice trembling with feeling. “I went through so much to get here. This medal is for all the women of Afghanistan and all the refugees of the world. I hope that one day there will be peace in my country.”
Originally obstructed from completing adhering to the surge of the Taliban in 2021, she was later on left from Afghanistan and was enabled to contend at the Tokyo Olympics for her nation adhering to an appeal from the global neighborhood.
After the competitors, she worked out in Paris and was later on provided the possibility to take on the evacuee group at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
“This medal means everything to me, I will never forget that day,” Khudadadi sadi. “I won because of the great support I got from the crowd.”
The ambience in the Grand Palais was electrical as the French group applauded her on as if she was just one of their very own. Since taking off Afghanistan, Khudadadi has actually been educating at INSEP, France’s nationwide institute of sporting activity, in Paris with her French train Haby Niare, a previous taekwondo globe champ.
“Zakia has been magical. I don’t know how else to put it,” Niare claimed, beaming with satisfaction. “The training process has been challenging. She faced a lot of injuries and she had to learn a lot in a couple of years but she never lost sight of her goal.”
Khudadadi obtained her medal from U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and Andrew Parsons, the head of state of the International Paralympic Committee.
“For the Refugee Paralympic Team, it’s super special, it’s super important,” Parsons claimed. “Zakia just showed to the world how good she is. It’s an incredible journey, it’s something that we should all learn about.”
