Home » The broken dreams of the two Afghan skiers who arrived in Rome: “For us the Olympics no longer exist”

The broken dreams of the two Afghan skiers who arrived in Rome: “For us the Olympics no longer exist”

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With no more dreams, no more homeland, the two Afghan athletes Sayed Alishah Farhang and Saijad Husaini have arrived in Rome. They represented Afghanistan at the 2018 Seoul Winter Olympics and were supposed to participate in next year’s in China but the Olympic dream has vanished. They come from the province of Bamiyan, the land where twenty years ago the Taliban blew up the two statues of Buddha carved in the rock between the third and fifth centuries. run away. They got into the car with their wife and young children, taking only a change of clothes with them, and reached Kabul. They found a desperate city, hundreds of people crowded in front of the airport. “I will never forget the Taliban shooting to scare people, the screams, the crying, the crowd,” says Alishah Farhang. Three days of waiting with the Italian soldiers who helped them find food, then they finally managed to leave.


They arrived in Rome on Monday. Since then they have been in isolation as foreseen by the anti Covid regulations and are waiting to understand what will become of their lives. Many places have offered to host them, including Bardonecchia. Nothing is decided. They are closely followed by the two organizations that have always promoted skiing in Afghanistan, Alpistan and Bamiyan Ski Club.

“It’s all over, the dream of the Olympics no longer exists. I can’t compete under the new flag, it’s not my country’s,” says Alishah Farhang. These are the same words that Saijad Husaini utters. In 2018, it was close to obtaining the qualification and they had immediately started training for the games in China again, hoping to be able to bring their country among the skiing champions and to give their contribution to the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Alishah Farhang had trained in the mountains where he had taken refuge as a child with his mother, widow and with a leg destroyed by a grenade, and where he had learned to ski with two wooden boards under his feet and facing long hours of climbing to descend. back to the valley.

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The broken dreams of the two Afghan skiers who arrived in Rome:

“Now everything has changed. I will learn Italian. For a year I will study and do what is necessary to obtain the entry documents in Italy”, explains Saijad Husaini. What will then happen “is unknown – adds Alishah Farhang – we can no longer decide for ourselves what to do with our future. I feel lucky to have saved my family but now another life begins”. He doesn’t know what it will be, he just knows he’s ready to do anything. “I could go and help out on a farm or I could work in the mountains in the world of skiing. Anything is fine to give my children a future and be able to financially support the relatives who have remained in Afghanistan”.

In these difficult hours, of isolation and bewilderment, they can only be clear about what they will not do. “I will not go back to Afghanistan.” It would be very dangerous for us who have had contact with the West, for the Taliban it is equivalent to taking sides with the enemy. They are eliminating anyone close to Westerners. Unfortunately, my family has remained in Afghanistan, I am worried about them “, explains Sajjad Husaini.” Our Afghanistan no longer exists. It was a country where there were schools, universities, an economy that began to function and connect us with the rest of the world. Everything has been destroyed, our future is elsewhere. Now I have only one dream left: to work to give my family a future and security “,

A subscription was launched to support the two skiers and their families. Offers can be sent to: Credit Suisse, Bamyan Ski Club, Mühlebachstrasse 54, 8008 Zürich, IBAN CH19 0483 5125 5530 9100 0; BIC CRESCHZZ80A Account 0835-1255530-91

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