Khudadadi’s Paralympic journey continues under Refugee Team flag

Taekwondo fighter, now living in France, goes for gold in Paris three years after competing for Afghanistan

In order to make her bow as a Paralympian three years ago, the Afghan taekwondo fighter Zakia Khudadadi had to undergo a trial most of us would struggle even to comprehend. A prisoner in her home, a target of the returning Taliban, it was only after a desperate video appeal went viral that she was somehow smuggled out of the country on one of the last flights out of Kabul. Within days, she was competing in Tokyo.

“I think everyone knows my story now and the challenges I was facing,” Khudadadi says now, modestly relaying what she went through. “I even knew that maybe after the video that it was possible nobody would come to support me and it was a life danger for me. But I accepted this risk: I wanted to be the first girl at the Paralympic Games.”

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