Zahra Nemati had one dream: to qualify for the Olympics.
And with a black belt in taekwondo, she was determined to live out that dream.
“My dream was to participate in the Olympic Games, and I could not let it go,” Nemati revealed to Olympics.com.
But when a car accident left her with life-changing injuries, achieving that goal felt like a world away.
That was until she found archery, and it changed everything.Nemati went on to compete at the London 2012 Olympic Games, just as she had always dreamed of doing.She won gold in London, and the rest is history.
The 36-year-old does not want to be reduced to being “just and Iranian and a para-archer” as she revealed during an interview with Tokyo2020.org
“I’m here as an advocate of human rights in Iran. I’ve delivered once a lecture about human rights for women in Iran and other parts to promote activities of women.”
Nemati is now at her third Paralympic Games, on course to defend the title she won in both London and Rio.”I would like everybody to know that Zahra Nemati never gave up and always stayed determined and never withdrew from her goals,” she told Olympics.com.
Nemati also considers archery as a metaphor on how we should live our life.
“Life has messages for us and archery has one too. One of the crucial messages of archery is that once you shoot the arrow (and aim for) the gold, you cannot think about (it anymore) – it is the past (and that’s why) we cannot think about it again,” she shared with Tokyo2020.org.
Source: www.olympics.com
