Farnaz Esmailzadeh is standing on the second-place podium. Next to her are two other young women, one in a sleeveless sports top and another in shorts. Esmailzadeh’s outfit is different. She is wearing a sports jacket and long trousers. The picture was taken after she had just won a silver medal Iran for speed climbing at Canada’s national competitions.
Esmailzadeh started rock climbing when she was 13 and has been a member of Iran’s Mountaineering & Sport Climbing National Team for 12 years, during which she has won numerous prizes. “Everybody in our family is into sports and mountains,” she says. “My brother was a rock climber. I was interested as well and my family encouraged me.”
Esmailzadeh is from Zanjan, a small city 330 kilometers west of Tehran, and she was one of the first girls in town to take rock climbing seriously. “I had no trainer,” she says. “I did it by watching films, by studying and practicing.” She sighs loudly and adds, “If I had a coach, it would have taken me two or three years to get where I am instead of 13 years.”
She is 26 now and is a coach herself. “I like to teach others the things that l had to learn the hard way.”
She has suffered many hardships for the sport she loves, and they never seem to end. “When you complete as a member of country’s national team, they see you as a professional athlete, meaning that you make living through it,” she says. “But unfortunately that is not how sports work in Iran. In the 12 years I have been a member of the national team, I have never been paid my salary. I have a contract, but I have not received any money, and there have been only expenses for me.” She has not even been paid for coaching.
More bitter still, when Esmailzadeh participated in the Canadian competitions as a member of Iran's national team, she had to pay her own way. “I traveled at my own expense because the federation says its budget is insufficient to cover our travels. They only pay once a year for Asian championship games, and once every two years for a world championship. We must pay for all the other world tournaments which decide our rankings."
Iran’s Mountaineering & Sport Climbing National Federation is composed of several workgroups, each of which covers a sport such as mountain skiing, mountain track and field, rock climbing and ice climbing. According to Farnaz, the federation does not provide any of them financial support. “The most it does is promotion and coordination,” she says. “For example, they invite people for mountain climbing. Unfortunately, unlike other federations, the question of championships is not very important to them.”
Spending Prizes on Competitions
Esmailzadeh and her teammates gather their prizes and spend them to participate in other competitions. “In our line of sports, the equipment is very expensive and it wears out quickly. For example, climbing rope can cost over $600, and a pair of rock climbing shoes over $300. The shoes do not last more than a month. And then you have the cost of nutrition, supplements, and other things.”
While Esmailzadeh has a bachelor’s degree in botany, she does not work in that field. “I don’t have time to work and be a sports professional at the same time. If you want to be a professional in sports you must practice morning and afternoon. The rest of the day you are so tired that you can do nothing but coach.”
Esmailzadeh is also the bodybuilding coach for the Omid Volleyball Team, but her salary is not enough to meet all her expenses. “For the past few years I have been looking for a sponsor, but unfortunately I cannot find one,” she says. “Whether there is not enough promotion or it is something else, I don’t know. Many of our competitors from other countries in my ranking or even lower have sponsors, and the sponsors pay for their travels and their practice.”
Farnaz has no manager. She arranges for her own visa, travel, and accommodation. Seeking a sponsor, she has written more than 400 emails to various companies.
Do male rock climbers have an easier time than female rock climbers in finding sponsorship, I ask her?
She chuckles and after a short pause says, “men can find sponsors much more easily. Foreign companies are not willing to sponsor us because of the outfit we wear. They say that they do not want to promote a particular religion. Men do not have this problem. All the men in our team have found sponsors.”
She pauses again and recalls other differences. “When it comes to practice, women have more limitations. For example, we have fewer practice time slots. The gyms are multi-purpose, and most of the time slots are for men. The walls that you can find outside the gym are in open the air, and for ‘security reasons’ they do not allow women to practice in the open air.”
Esmailzadeh is going to stay in Canada for a few weeks to exercise more. Last year she spent a few months in Canada to exercise as well, next to those who have access to many more facilities than she has. “They have coaches and sponsors, they pay no expenses themselves, and they have no doubt that they will be able to participate in all competitions.”
She sighs again and says, “it is three weeks to the start of world competitions, and I have yet to find a sponsor. If I cannot find one, I won’t be able to compete. The world competitions decide the rankings, and so it is very important. Every year there are close to 15 competitions, and the federation does not give us support for even one of them. Last year I participated in three competitions at my own expense and got a ranking of 17. Being in the top 30 is very good. You get points for participating in each competition. But out of 15, I was able to participate in only three.”
This year’s world completions start in three weeks. First and second rounds take place in China, but Farnaz is still looking for a sponsor.
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