The Olympics have always brought to focus inspirational stories of athletes around the world and their incredible journey to reach the global stage. Apart from their sporting talent, the athletes go through rigorous training to meet very stringent standards and often have to cover medical bills, sports gear and travel costs by themselves. Only a few chosen ones land lucrative corporate offers.
The road to the Games is full of personal and professional hurdles. As the Paris Olympics 2024 makes headlines over the many victories and losses, here are some stories of the journeys, passion and courage that brought the elite athletes to the world’s biggest stage:
Yaylagul Ramazanova
At 34, Yaylagul Ramazanova, the Azerbaijan archer, stunned the world after she shot a perfect 10 while being six-and-a-half-month pregnant. "I felt my baby kick me before I shot this last arrow, and then I shot a 10," she revealed in an Instagram post later. Fans on social media have called her a ‘badass’ and 'champion' to be able to compete while carrying a child. "Women can do anything," others have said on her post.
Ramazanova is only the second archer in Azerbaijan’s relatively young history to compete at the Olympics. The first-ever archer from the country to achieve this feat was Olga Senyuk, who took part in the Rio Games in 2016. Ramazanova competed in Paris against all odds and qualified in 1/32 elimination round but later lost out to Germany’s Michelle Kroppen in the round of 16.
Nada Hafez
Pregnancy seemed to be a running theme in Paris this year. Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez revealed at the Olympics that she was “carrying a little Olympian” while competing and was seven months pregnant. "What appears to you as two players, they were actually three! It was me, my competitor, and my yet to come to our world little baby!" she wrote in an Instagram post. Having battled her way to reach this stage under extreme circumstances, she said, "My baby and I had our fair share of challenges, be it both physical and emotional. The rollercoaster of pregnancy is tough on its own, but having to fight to keep the balance of life and sports was nothing short of strenuous, however worth it."
The 26-year-old had reached the round of 16 and beat Elizabeth Tartakovsky of the United States before losing to Jeon Hayoung of South Korea at the Grand Palais in the French capital. She has earlier competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2020 Summer Olympics in Sabre.
Vinesh Phogat
At the Paris Olympics, Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat was fighting not just for her dream but that of many young female wrestlers in the country. Last year, Phogat, alongside Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, was the face of the protest against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of sexually assaulting young female wrestlers during his tenure as president of the Wrestling Federation of India.As she made her third Olympic appearance in Paris, that too in a new weight class of 50kg, the 29-year-old wrestler set a record by defeating Japan’s Yui Susaki, who had never been defeated before. She stormed through the next two matches, defeating her Ukrainian and Cuban opponents in the quarter-final and semi-final, respectively. It would have been a remarkable first for India as no other female wrestler had reached the final. However, hours away from the gold medal, her dreams were crushed when she failed the weigh-in on the morning of the finals, exceeding the permissible weight limit by just 100 grams. Heartbroken, she announced retirement shortly after. “Alvida kushti (Goodbye wrestling),” she wrote on X.
Iconic American freestyle wrestler Jordan Burroughs has come out in support of her, proposed immediate rule changes in the United World Wrestling and also demanded that Phogat be given a silver medal.
Yusuf Dikec
Usually, in the sport of shooting, age is just a number. However, it is not every day that you a 51-year-old casually clinch medals at the Olympics. It is his seemingly ‘casual’ appeal, though, not his historic medal, that made Turkish pistol shooter Yusuf Dikec an internet sensation overnight. A hand in his pocket, wearing standard glasses and ear plugs – no visors,, blinder or chunky ear defenders – Dikec got Türkiye their first-ever medal in Olympic shooting in Paris, taking silver in the 10m air pistol mixed team event alongside Sevval Ilayda Tarhan.
Paris was not Dikec’s first rodeo although it made him famous. He has been competing at the Games since 2008 but had been shy of a place in the top 10. Celebrations have already begun in Türkiye as he and Tarhan bring home glory.
On social media, fans have been editing his pose into memes and film scenes, comparing him to characters from TV shows and video games. In another iconic moment, Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis recreated Dikec’s pose on winning his record-breaking gold at the Paris Olympics. Dikec, too, seems to have embraced the trend, reposting a video compilation of memes about him to his Instagram page.
Zhiying Zeng
Speaking of age, 58-year-old Zeng Zhiying made her Olympic debut for Chile in Paris this year, almost four decades after she missed out on being selected to represent China in 1984. Starting her journey in China at a very young age, she was a pro in table tennis by the age of 12. However, as she reached the international stage, her biggest setback was a new paddle rule – mandating the red and black sides, as opposed to both black sides – ahead of the first-ever table tennis match at the Olympics. The rule drastically affected her technique.
In 1989, when she received an invitation to coach school kids in Chile, she left her home country, stayed on in Chile, and made sporadic comebacks to competitive table tennis. In 2023, she had a big crowning moment when she was picked to be part of the Chilean women’s team for the Pan American Games in Santiago. With continuous training, she eventually made her way to Paris, too. According to a CNN report, her 92-year-old father stayed up till 5 am in China just to watch his daughter realise her lifelong dream.
Zeng, the oldest person to debut in Olympic table tennis, lost to 46-year-old Mariana Sahakian of Lebanon in the preliminary rounds but her dream of “becoming an Olympian” came true. Zeng is affectionately dubbed as ‘Tia Tania’ or Auntie Tania in Chile and ‘table tennis Grandma’ by her fans. Her journey will be etched in the hearts of many aspiring athletes.
