Tehran, Iran – It's 2021, in Konya, Türkiye, at the fifth edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games.
Farzaneh Fasihi's heart races as she leans into position at the starting line, the lingering effects of a COVID-19 infection still wearing her down.
She feels pressure in her chest, but she is determined to compete.
The starting gun sounds and she lunges forward as fast as she can, moving her legs faster than ever.
When he crosses the finish line, he collapses; not from exhaustion, but from the overwhelming excitement of breaking his own 100-meter dash record, clocking a blistering time of 11.12 seconds to win the silver medal.
“The night before a race, memories of my life come flooding back to me. All the hardships I have endured and all my successes flash before my eyes like a film reel,” Fasihi told Al Jazeera, speaking in a Zoom interview from Belgrade, Serbia. She is in training camp ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, which begin on July 26, and where the fastest Iranian runner of all time will compete in her favourite event, the 100-metre sprint.
Fasihi is no stranger to challenges, but a strong support system in her personal life has helped her get through it all.
“I did not want to do it”
Born in 1993 in Isfahan, Iran, Fasihi, 31, comes from a family of athletes. Her father was a volleyball player and her brother was a swimming and diving champion.
“Before I got married, my father attended all my training sessions,” she recalls. “My mother also attended all my competitions. Without her support, she could not have achieved it.”
Fasihi practiced gymnastics from the age of five to twelve. She recalls that her first foray into competitive sprinting was more a fluke than a plan.
“In high school, my gym teacher forced me to take part in a running competition. I didn’t want to do it,” Fasihi recalls. That day she broke the Isfahan provincial record, igniting her passion for athletics.
In 2016, he made his international debut.
Fasihi's team performed well above expectations and won the silver medal in the 4x400m relay at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar.
But his outstanding performance did not catapult his sprinting career to new heights. With little support from the Iranian athletics federation, she left everything behind and became a personal fitness trainer.
That all changed at the end of 2018, when he decided to give competitive sprinting a second chance.
A year later, that decision led to an unexpected result: she married one of her coaches, Amir Hosseini, who has been her most loyal supporter.
In 2020, with a support structure now firmly established under Hosseini, Fasihi's career literally took off.
She participated in the World Indoor Athletics Championships, where the relatively unknown runner swept the track with a sensational record time of 7.29 seconds in the 60-meter sprint held in Belgrade, Serbia.
Not only had Fasihi come out of nowhere to set a fast time, she had also made history by becoming the first Iranian woman to compete in the championships. Her stunning performance in Belgrade was where she was first given the nickname “Jaguar”, a testament to her ferocious speed from the start.
A year later, in 2021, she signed with Serbian athletics club BAK, becoming the first female legionnaire (which actually means a club hires and sponsors a foreign athlete to relocate and compete for them) in athletics history. from Iran.
“Becoming a legionnaire was a new path. It was a big risk, but deep down I felt I had to do it,” she said, hoping that this would serve as an inspiration to other Iranian athletes.
Let's be clear: this is 'for the people'
In 2023, Fasihi would win gold in the 60 meter dash at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, with a stunning time of 7.28 seconds.
As remarkable and celebratory as that personal best performance was (the setting of a new Asian record in the 60 metres would normally be cause for wild celebrations), the day would be remembered for something far deeper.
As Fasihi walked to the podium, he turned directly to the camera and shouted: “For the people of Iran. For the happiness of the people of Iran!”
Her moment of protest went viral on social media, when Fasihi refused to carry the Iranian flag and instead bowed her head while silently shedding tears, refusing to sing the national anthem on victory days.
This was her statement, or way, of expressing the tragedy of young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who in 2022 collapsed and died, allegedly after being detained by Iran’s moral police for wearing an inappropriate “hijab” (headscarf).
Amini's death made international news and galvanized female activists around the world through the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement.
Olympic dream
Two years earlier, Fasihi had already taken the first step towards her Olympic dream when she was selected through the so-called universal placement to participate in Tokyo 2020.
Universal placement is a policy established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that allows athletes from underrepresented countries to participate, even if they have not met standard qualification criteria. The policy exists to ensure broader global representation and inclusion at the Olympic Games.
In Tokyo, Fasihi competed in the 100-meter race, marking Iran's return to the event after a 57-year hiatus. At the 1964 Summer Olympics, also in Tokyo, Simin Safamehr made history as the first female athlete to represent Iran at the games, coincidentally competing in the 100-meter dash as well as the long jump.
Fasihi placed 50th in Tokyo, while facing scrutiny for her hijab, sparking a firestorm of debate on Iranian social media as some claimed the strict dress code slowed her down, hindered her performance and limited her exposure. in the media and its sponsorship opportunities.
But the Tokyo Olympics were also a chance for her to meet her sprint idol, Jamaican track and field superstar Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. “I liked her even more when I met her. Her lifestyle is impressive, as she is a professional athlete, a wife and a mother, and she helps many charities.”
For Fasihi, his performance in Tokyo was below his best, but that only fueled his ambition to do better next time.
“What makes Paris [2024 Olympics] “What is different is that I will compete on my own merits, not through universality,” Fasihi told Al Jazeera.
Despite systemic challenges, especially the lack of official government support for elite female athletes in Iran, Fasihi remains steadfast in her goal to achieve her goals. She self-funds her training, participates in competitions and is working to secure modest sponsorships.
Fasihi believes that large investments in the sport by countries such as China, India and Japan will produce impressive results in Asian athletics, but points to the disparity of resources across the continent.
“In Qatar, for example, athletes work with American coaches and the federation invites analysts, physiotherapists and sports medicine doctors from around the world. Even China and Japan coordinate training camps in Florida. [in the United States],” she said.
In May 2024, Fasihi competed in the Doha Diamond League 100m race but came last in the final against a star-studded lineup of sprinters from the US, UK, Hungary and Jamaica.
At the Paris Olympics, she will be up against the best athletes in the world. She is not one to harbor unrealistic expectations. She only focuses on what she can control, and that is her performance.
“Competing in the Olympic Games is a great challenge,” Fasihi said. “My goal is to compete with myself. “I want to beat my own record.”
