Zakia Khudadadi makes history by winning first-ever Paralympic medal for the refugee team with taekwondo bronze
By George Ramsay, CNN
(CNN) — Zakia Khudadadi made history on Thursday by becoming the first athlete from the Refugee Paralympic Team to win a medal at the Paralympics.
Khudadadi, originally from Afghanistan but now living and training in France, won bronze in the taekwondo women’s K44 -47kg category in Paris.
“This medal is fantastic for me, but also for all the women in Afghanistan and all the refugees,” she told reporters. “We are not giving up on equality and freedom in my country.”
Khudadadi had lost to Uzbekistan’s Ziyodakhon Isakova in the quarterfinals at the Grand Palais but then defeated Turkey’s Nurcihan Ekinci in their repechage match, guaranteeing her a bronze medal after her next opponent, Morocco’s Naoual Laarif, withdrew from the competition.
The 25-year-old made her Paralympic debut in Tokyo three years ago having fled Kabul amid the Taliban’s ascension to power.
Initially unable to leave Afghanistan, she was forced into hiding and continued to train for the Paralympics from her back garden. It was only after a viral video plea that Khudadadi was able to escape the country and continue her sporting career.
“I was told that, if I stayed, the Taliban would come and take me because I was a female athlete disobeying their rules,” she told CNN Sport ahead of the Paris Games. “I had only one choice – to leave.”
Born without a forearm, Khudadadi started competing in Para sport at the age of nine, going on to become the first Afghan woman to compete in taekwondo at the Paralympics.
Having settled in Paris since leaving Afghanistan, she earned a spot on the International Olympic Committee’s Athlete Refugee Team for the Paralympics, representing the millions of displaced people around the world.
Khudadadi added after her accomplishment that she hopes women in Afghanistan, who can’t go to school or even leave their homes without a male chaperone under Taliban rule, will be inspired by her medal and “win one day.”
She added: “I want to give this medal to the whole world. I hope that one day there will be freedom in my country, for all the world, for all the girls, for all the women, for all the refugees in the world. And that all of us work towards that, for liberty and equality.”
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CNN’s Rory Fleming contributed to reporting.
