June 25, 2021
Five Iranian expats will be part of a refugee team of 29 athletes competing at next month’s Tokyo Olympics.
The team will compete under the Olympic flag and will also include athletes from Syria (9), South Sudan (4), Afghanistan (3), Eritrea (2) and one each from Venezuela, Iraq, Cameroon, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congo.
Kimia Alizadeh, Iran’s first female Olympic medalist when she won bronze in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics, will be back for her second Olympic Games. Alizadeh moved to Germany in early 2020 after she complained of being used by Iranian officials as a tool for propaganda.
Also on the team are kay-aker Saeid Fazloula, who reached Germany in 2015, Javad Mahjoub, who lives in Canada and will compete in judo, Hamoon Derafshipour, who won bronze at the 2018 Karate World Championships, and taekwondo competitor Dina Pouryounes Langeroudi, who lives in the Netherlands.
Derafshipour said he left for Canada in 2019 so his wife could train him for the Games.
The athletes will march into the stadium during the opening ceremony of the July 23-August 8 Tokyo Olympics immediately after the team from Greece.
They were selected from a pool of 56, supported by Olympic scholarships.
The first such refugee team was assembled for the 2016 Olympics.