PARIS– After overcoming so many obstacles, the disappointment was immense for refugee athlete Hadi Tiranvalipour, as his dream of winning an Olympic medal was cut short when he lost a qualifying taekwondo match on Wednesday at Paris Games.
Tiranvalipour, 26, faced Omar Ismail of Palestine in the men’s under-58 kilos competition and lost 2-0 in a lopsided match in the luxurious Grand Palais location on the first day of taekwondo events.
“I’m not satisfied with my performance, I have no answer for that. I wanted a good result, it’s not happening,” she said.
Before being part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, Tiranvalipour fought for eight years as a member of the Iranian national team, winning the gold medal at the Asian Junior Championships in 2015.
But Tiranvalipour, who also worked as a television presenter and studied sports science, was forced to leave his country after speaking out in favor of women’s rights, losing his job. In October 2022, he traveled to Turkey, then Italy, where he lived in a forest for 10 days and then slept for three months on a couch in shared accommodation that Iranian students helped him find.
“Our journey is very difficult,” he said after the defeat to Ismail. “Not for me, for all refugee athletes. It is very difficult for each of us to be here.”
Athletes from refugee team they compete under the same flag and come from different parts of the world. The team was created to Rio Olympics in 2016 as a symbol of hope and draw attention to the plight of refugees around the world.
Another taekwondo specialist on the team, Dina Pouryounes Langeroudi, competed at the Grand Palais this Wednesday, losing in the round of 16 in two rounds to Guo Qing, from China, in the women’s under 49 kilos.
Langeroudi, 32, who reached third place in the world rankings four years ago, also comes from Iran. She moved to the Netherlands in 2015 and had previously been a member of the refugee team for the Tokyo Games.
After training alone in a park, Tiranvalipour finally contacted the Italian federation, which helped him apply for asylum and settle permanently in the country. In preparation for the Games, he trained at the Olympic Sports Center in Rome with the likes of Vito Dell’Aquila, current Olympic champion.
After missing out on Olympic qualification during the European qualifiers in March, he was selected for the refugee Olympic team and had high expectations in Paris.
“I’m not satisfied because I had to make a lot of sacrifices in my weight loss process, in my training. I’m very sad,” he said. “We have been through so many difficult journeys. If you have a goal, you need to keep going. Life is like this. I have to accept (my loss) and I have to think about the future.”
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