It was a memorable contest for multiple reasons as Palestine’s Omar Yaser Ismail faced Hadi Tiranvalipour of the Refugee Olympic Team in the taekwondo men’s -58kg qualification round at Paris 2024 on Wednesday (7 August).
In the blue, 18-year-old Yaser Ismail was making history as the first-ever athlete to represent Palestine at the Olympic Games in a combat sport.
And in the red was Tiranvalipour, 26, making his Olympic debut when representing more than 100 million refugees around the world.
With Yaser Ismail seeded 15th and Tiranvalipour 18th, a close-fought first round proved to be decisive as the Palestinian practitioner edged it 4-3 before winning the second round as well to advance to the round of 16.
“I’m not satisfied about my performance but first of all, I appreciate the IOC for giving me this chance. We are representing 100 million people,” he told Olympics.com.
“All of our journeys are difficult, from the beginning until now.”
Asked if he had one message for refugees around the world, he replied: “I have one message, if we are here, we’re going to fight.
“We’ve passed many difficult journeys. Never give up, if you have a target, a dream, you have to keep going. This is my message for all the refugee people in the world. We have to keep going.”
