Lower than 4 months in the past, Afghanistan sprinter Sha Mahmood Noor Zahi proudly carried his nation’s flag down the River Seine on the 2024 Paris Olympics. Per week later, he grew to become a family identify in Afghanistan by setting a nationwide file within the males’s 100m preliminary spherical, lacking a qualifying spot within the heats by only one place. At that second, Noor Zahi made the largest choice of his life: selecting to depart his nation with a one-way ticket to Germany in hopes of a greater future.
In an interview with the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, Noor Zahi mentioned he has been residing in a shelter within the metropolis of Schweinfurt for the previous few months whereas awaiting his asylum utility. Although he doesn’t communicate English or German, he might be discovered coaching 4 to (typically) 5 hours a day at Sachs Stadion, the house of the town’s soccer group.
The 33-year-old achieved his dream of operating on the Olympic Video games by means of a universality place choice for Tokyo 2020. (This system goals to make sure broader world illustration at main championships by permitting athletes from international locations with less-developed sports activities packages to take part). Noor Zahi has taken full benefit of the chance, reducing his 100m private finest from 11.04 seconds to 10.64 seconds within the span of three years. Though he doesn’t have a coach, he continues to comply with the coaching plan he acquired in Iran earlier than the Paris Olympics.
Noor Zahi’s predominant objective is to qualify for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles (his third Olympics), when he can be 37. He has ambitions to turn out to be the primary particular person from his nation to run below 10 seconds and qualify for an Olympic ultimate. “I’ve run and run to beat many obstacles,” he mentioned about his challenges. “So why cease now?”
An athlete he has at all times admired is Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, whom he recollects watching in movies on his cell phone in his youthful days in Afghanistan. Noor Zahi pointed to Bolt’s pace, confidence and the best way he graced the monitor. For Noor Zahi to realize his objective, he wants to remain in Germany, the place he can proceed to coach and pursue a profession in athletics.
The scenario in his house nation stays dire. The unconventional Islamist Taliban group regained energy in 2021 after the withdrawal of worldwide troops. Since then, the group has been publicly executing individuals in stadiums, and ladies are solely allowed on the streets when accompanied by males.
Noor Zahi is conscious that he’s additionally preventing a battle towards time in sprinting, the place athletes over 30 not often set private bests. His idol, Bolt, set his world file at 23 and was 30 when he received his ultimate Olympic medals in Rio 2016.