Three years ago, Zakia Khudadadi went into hiding from the Talibansecretly training in her back garden in Afghanistan. Today, she is a bronze medalist and has just made history as the first refugee Paralympic athlete to win a medal at Paralympic Games.
On Thursday at the Grand Palais in Paris, the 25-year-old defeated Turkish Nurcihan Ekinci in the bronze medal match in the women's 47g taekwondo category. After losing in the quarterfinals, Khudadadi won her tiebreaker match to move onto the podium when Moroccan athlete Nawal Laarif withdrew from the bronze medal competition.
“It was a surreal moment; my heart started beating faster when I realized I had won bronze,” Khudadadi said. AP News“I have been through a lot to get here. This medal is for all the women of Afghanistan and all the refugees in the world. I hope that one day my country will have peace.”
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Khudadadi was born without one forearm and began secretly training in taekwondo at a secret gym in Herat, Afghanistan, when she was 11 years old.
After the rise of the Taliban in 2021, Khudadadi was banned from his favorite sport. According to CNNshe couldn't leave the country the first time and was forced to go into hiding, continuing to train for the Paralympics in the shadow of her backyard. In a moment of desperation, Khudadadi released video message that went viralEventually, she was given a place on the evacuation list from Spain and was flown to safety by the Australian Air Force.
“I was told that if I stayed, the Taliban would come and take me away because I was an athlete who didn't follow their rules,” she told CNN. “I had only one choice – to leave.”