On Thursday at 12:15 Tehran time, one of the most intense and dramatic events of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will take place. It is a repeat of a showdown we witnessed during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Two women, two close friends, two training partners, and two longtime companions will face off once more in one of the most significant competitions in the history of world sports. Nahid Kiani from Iran will represent her country, while Kimia Alizadeh, also originally from Iran, will compete under the Bulgarian flag.
In the Tokyo Olympics, Alizadeh was part of the "Olympic Refugees" team and triumphed over Nahid Kiani with a score of 18:9. This time, however, the circumstances are different. Nahid Kiani enters the competition as a world champion, having garnered more preparation and experience since their last encounter. Alizadeh, now a member of the Bulgarian national team, will have her medals counted among the honors of this Eastern European nation.
The Past of Nahid Kiani and Kimia Alizadeh
Before watching the fight and kicks off these two in the Paris taekwondo hall, we must remember that Kimia and Nahid were two friends, two companions, and two "safe girls" for each other in the past. For over five years, Nahid Kiani had been both a training partner and a rival to Kimia Alizadeh.
During Kimia Alizadeh’s preparations for the 2016 Rio Olympics, Nahid Kiani supported her extensively, despite knowing she would not compete in Rio. She accompanied Kimia to the Chalos camp, trained with her daily in Tehran and at the Taekwondo House, and was devastated upon hearing the news of Kimia Alizadeh's asylum in Germany, reportedly crying for hours.
Nahid Kiani was heartbroken because she knew the departure of Kimia Alizadeh, Iran's taekwondo's only female Olympic medalist in the country's history, would elevate her own status to the top spot in her weight category.
A Tale of Political Strife and Personal Struggle
The competition between Nahid and Kimia symbolizes more than just a sports rivalry; it is also a testament to the political turmoil that has affected their lives. The Islamic Republic's policies pushed Kimia Alizadeh to seek asylum, as she yearned for the freedom to compete without restrictions on her appearance and personal expression.
In January 2020, amidst the aftermath of government repression and public protests, and shortly after the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane, Kimia Alizadeh's decision to seek asylum in Germany made headlines. No longer wanting to compete or live under the Iranian flag, she published a post on Instagram explaining her departure.
She wrote, "Whatever they said, I wore. I repeated every sentence they ordered ... They said my medal was for due the mandatory hijab and attributed it to their own management and tact."
She also spoke out against "discrimination" and "dirty money" in Iran, stating her refusal to be part of the "system of repression, corruption and lies."
Around the same time, a banner in Iran’s Taekwondo House featured Kimia Alizadeh's image alongside a quote: "Perhaps I will leave the sport, but I will never leave my hijab."
The upcoming match between Kimia Alizadeh and Nahid Kiani is overshadowed by derogatory remarks from Iranian state media. During their bout at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Iranian state TV referred to Kimia with terms like "homeless" and "self-sold," while largely ignoring Nahid Kiani. The commentator avoided mentioning Kimia's name, instead calling her "the taekwondo player of the refugee team," "athlete of the refugee team," and "rival."
After her defeat by Kimia Alizadeh in Tokyo, Nahid Kiani faced some of the most challenging days of her career.
She wrote afterwards: "Despite my family's opposition to championship sports, I had used the number 2020 in most of my passwords for years to remember that I have to participate in these competitions."
Her brief post revealed her internal struggles and dreams tied to the Tokyo Olympics. She wrote to her old friend, Kimia Alizadeh: "I reached a place where I had to send all my strength to my legs so that I could raise my strong Iranian flag. Iran, the same civilization of thousands of years that I am a daughter of its water and soil. I didn't know that one day in the biggest event of my life, at the point I had been trying to reach for years, I was going to stand in front of my countrywoman, in front of a friend who is part of my sports memories. What should I have done? Politics had grown in front of us. I don't know what happened to the world that the force of sports did not reach politics, and the Olympic flag has become only a careless symbol that proclaims the slogan of peace."
She concluded by identifying herself as a part of the "Iranian people" and expressed: "The people of my land. I am of your own kind, of ordinary people, of real pain, sorry if I couldn't be my whole self."
Upon returning to Iran after her elimination, Kiani received no welcome from the managers and sports authorities. Yet, she persevered and achieved remarkable success, adding multiple titles to her hall of fame: a gold medal at the Islamic Games in 2021, a gold medal at the Asian Games in 2022, a gold medal at the Asian Championship in 2022, and a gold medal at the World Taekwondo Championship in 2023. She now enters the 2024 Paris Olympics with four consecutive championship titles.
Nahid Kiani's journey to the 2024 Paris Olympics is marked by her strong connection to the Iranian people and her repeated blacklisting by security institutions and the Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran for supporting her countrymen during the 2022 protests.
In December 2022, Iranian media reported that Nahid Kiani was removed from the national team by the technical staff of Iran's women's national taekwondo team due to non-technical reasons and under orders from regulatory bodies. This exclusion followed her objection to the use of her image in a "Mural of Valiasr Square" in Tehran titled "Women of My Land of Iran." Mehro Kamrani, the head coach of Iran's national women's taekwondo team, expressed hope of having Kiani back after the Italian World Championships.
Kiani once again posted a picture of herself without the obligatory hijab on her Instagram, using the hashtag "woman, life, freedom" and stated: "My silence is not due to satisfaction."
The Varzesh 3 website claimed that Kiani had said goodbye to the national taekwondo team. However, this claim was never confirmed by her, and she continues to compete, now facing her old friend, Kimia Alizadeh, once again in the Olympics.
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