Tehran, Iran – It’s 2021, in Konya, Turkey, on the fifth version of the Islamic Solidarity Video games.
Farzaneh Fasihi’s coronary heart races as she bends into place initially line, the lingering results of a COVID-19 an infection nonetheless sporting her down.
Her chest is tight, however she’s decided to compete.
The starter’s gun goes off, and she or he lunges ahead as swiftly as she will be able to, her legs churning quicker than ever earlier than.
When she crosses the end line, she collapses; not from exhaustion, however from the overwhelming emotion of breaking her personal 100-metre dash document, clocking a lightning-fast time of 11.12 seconds to win the silver medal.
“On the night time earlier than a race, recollections of my life gush by way of my thoughts. All of the hardships I’ve endured and all my successes cross earlier than my eyes like a movie reel,” Fasihi advised Al Jazeera, talking in a Zoom interview from Belgrade, Serbia. She is at a coaching camp forward of the Paris 2024 Olympics, which kick off July 26, and the place Iran’s quickest feminine runner of all time will compete in her favorite occasion, the 100-metre dash.
Fasihi isn’t any stranger to challenges, however a robust assist system in her private life has seen her by way of all of it.
“I didn’t wish to do it’
Born in 1993 in Isfahan, Iran, Fasihi, 31, hails from an athletic household. Her father was a volleyball participant, and her brother a swimming and diving champion.
“Earlier than I bought married, my father attended all my coaching periods,” she remembers. “My mom additionally attended all my competitions. With out their assist, I couldn’t have succeeded.”
From age 5 to 12, Fasihi did gymnastics. She remembers how her first foray into aggressive sprinting was extra by likelihood than design.
“In center faculty, my health club instructor compelled me to take part in a working competitors. I didn’t wish to do it,” Fasihi remembers. That day, she broke the Isfahan provincial document, igniting her ardour for observe and area.
In 2016, she made her worldwide debut.
Fasihi’s crew carried out properly above expectations, successful the silver medal within the 4×400 metre relay on the Asia Indoor Athletics Championship in Doha, Qatar.
However her standout efficiency didn’t catapult her sprinting profession to new heights. With little assist from the Iranian observe and area federation, she left all of it behind and have become a private health coach.
That every one modified in late 2018, when she determined to present aggressive sprinting a second strive.
A yr later, that call led to an surprising consequence: she married one in every of her coaches, Amir Hosseini, who has been her staunchest supporter.
In 2020, with a assist construction now firmly established with Hosseini, Fasihi’s profession actually took off.
She participated within the World Athletics Indoor Championships, the place the comparatively unknown runner scorched the observe with a sensational entry document time of seven.29 seconds within the 60-metre dash held in Belgrade, Serbia.
Not solely had Fasihi come out of nowhere to submit a quick time – however she had additionally created historical past by changing into the primary Iranian lady to compete on the championship. Her shock efficiency in Belgrade was the place she was first given the nickname “Jaguar,” a testomony to her ferocious velocity off the beginning block.
A yr later, in 2021, she signed with the Serbian athletics membership BAK, changing into the primary feminine legionnaire – which successfully means a membership indicators and sponsors a overseas athlete to relocate and compete for them – in Iran observe and area historical past.
“Changing into a legionnaire was a brand new path. It was an amazing danger, however I felt deep inside that I needed to do it,” she mentioned, hoping that it could encourage different feminine Iranian athletes.
Setting the document straight – this one’s ‘for the individuals’
In 2023, Fasihi would then go on to win gold on the 60-metre race on the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, clocking a scintillating time of seven.28 seconds.
As excellent and celebratory as that personal-best efficiency was – the setting of a brand new Asian 60-metre sprinting document would ordinarily be trigger for wild celebrations – the day could be remembered for one thing way more profound.
As Fasihi walked to the rostrum, she turned on to the digital camera and shouted: “For the individuals of Iran. For the happiness of the individuals of Iran!”
Her second of protest went viral on social media, with Fasihi declining to hold the Iranian flag and as a substitute bowing her head as she shed silent tears, refusing to sing the nationwide anthem on the victory dias.
This was her assertion, or manner, to specific the tragedy of the younger Iranian lady Mahsa Amini, who in 2022 collapsed and died, allegedly after she was detained by Iran’s morality police for sporting an “improper hijab” (headband).
Amini’s dying made worldwide information headlines and galvanised feminine activists all around the world by way of the “Girls, Life, Freedom” motion.
Olympic dreaming
Two years earlier, Fasihi had already taken step one in the direction of her Olympic dream when she was chosen by way of the so-called universality placement to take part in Tokyo 2020.
Universality placement is a coverage set by the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) permitting athletes from underrepresented international locations to take part, even when they haven’t met the usual qualifying standards. The coverage exists to make sure broader world illustration and inclusivity on the Olympic video games.
In Tokyo, Fasihi competed within the 100-metre dash, marking Iran’s return to this occasion after a 57-year hiatus. Within the 1964 Summer season Olympics, additionally in Tokyo, Simin Safamehr had made historical past as the primary lady athlete to characterize Iran on the video games, coincidentally competing within the 100-metre dash, in addition to the lengthy soar.
Fasihi positioned fiftieth in Tokyo, all of the whereas dealing with scrutiny over her hijab, triggering a firestorm of debate within the Iranian social media area as some claimed the strict costume code slowed her down, hindering her efficiency and limiting her media publicity and sponsorship alternatives.
However the Tokyo Olympics was additionally a chance for her to fulfill her sprinting idol, Jamaican observe and area famous person Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. “I preferred her much more once we met. Her way of life is spectacular as she is each knowledgeable athlete, a spouse and mom, and helps many charities.“
For Fasihi, her efficiency in Tokyo was beneath her greatest – nevertheless it solely fueled her ambition to do higher subsequent time.
“What makes Paris [2024 Olympics] completely different is that I’ll compete alone advantage – not by way of universality placement,” Fasihi advised Al Jazeera.
Regardless of the systemic challenges, particularly the dearth of official authorities assist for elite feminine athletes in Iran, Fasihi stays steadfast in reaching her objectives. She self-finances her coaching, participates in competitions and is working to safe modest sponsorships.
Fasihi believes that intensive investments in sport by international locations like China, India, and Japan will yield spectacular ends in Asian athletics, however notes the disparity in assets throughout the continent.
“In Qatar, for instance, athletes work with American trainers and the federation invitations analysts, physiotherapists, and sports activities drugs physicians from around the globe. Even China and Japan coordinate coaching camps in Florida [in the United States],” she mentioned.
In Might 2024, Fasihi competed within the Doha Diamond League’s 100-metre race, however got here final within the closing towards a star-studded line-up of sprinters from the US, United Kingdom, Hungary, and Jamaica.
On the Paris Olympics, she is going to face off towards the world’s greatest athletes. She isn’t somebody who harbours unrealistic expectations. She solely focuses on what she will be able to management – and that’s her efficiency.
“Competing on the Olympics is an enormous problem,” Fasihi mentioned. “My aim is to compete with myself. I wish to beat my very own document.”
