Dodging bullets and bombs

Iraqi sprinter Dana Hussein, who will participate in women's 100m and 200m events, has survived bombings, sectarian fighting and sniper shooting in her war-torn country

BAGHDAD: Iraqi female sprinter Dana Hussein needed more than just sporting determination to get to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she had to survive bombings, sectarian fighting and even a sniper shooting.

This week the 100- and 200-metre sprinter will become only the third Iraqi woman to attend the Games after the IOC lifted a ban, allowing her and four teammates to travel to the Chinese capital. “The Olympics are beautiful and this is the first time I can participate,” a nervous but happy Hussein said on the very field where a sniper opened fire at the 21-year-old, missing her head by inches.

Yousif Abdel-Rahman, Hussein’s 46-year-old coach and a former national 400-metre champion, recalled how despite her escape, the violence that has plagued Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion was almost too much for him too bear. “There were several assassination attempts on our way home, car bombs and explosions,” said Abdel-Rahman, who each day accompanies Hussein to Baghdad’s middle-class Al-Saydiyah
neighbourhood after training.

Violence in Iraq has become part of people’s life, with tens of thousands killed in an insurgency.

It is a conflict that student Hussein, and Abdel-Rahman hope sport can transcend. “Participation in the Olympics means a lot to me, because I will represent an entire country, not just myself”, Hussein said.

Although few Olympic athletes are likely to have faced the kind of obstacles that Hussein has had to overcome, it was politics rather than violence that nearly killed Hussein’s chance to compete in the Games. In June the IOC had suspended Iraq for “political interference” in its National Olympic Committee, which was sacked in May and replaced by a panel headed by Iraqi Youth and Sports Minister Jassem Jaafar.

The IOC said the committee had an insufficient quorum and had failed to hold elections in five years. The decision left Hussein locked out of the competition. The head of the committee, Ahmed al-Samarrai, was kidnapped in Baghdad in July 2006 at the height of sectarian violence along with several associates and he has not been heard of since.

Pleading Iraqi officials struck an 11th-hour deal with the IOC, that allowed five of their athletes to go to Beijing. A weightlifter and judoka were not so lucky after missing a registration deadline.

“When I heard about our elimination from the Olympics on, I cried for two and-a-half hours,”

Hussein said. “I was so depressed because I felt that everything I had worked for under such difficult conditions had vanished.

“But after we were allowed to participate, life came back to me. I was as happy as child,” she said. Hussein first laced up her running shoes only five years ago, and soon caught the attention of officials, winning half-a-dozen medals at Arab and Asian meetings.

Her international fame became such that Time magazine included her in a list of 100 athletes to watch at the Games. Iraq’s conflict has meant Hussein has had almost no cash to fund her athletic career, forcing her to forfeit a series of preparatory meetings ahead of Beijing.

Medals are out of reach for her but she believes that she can beat her current national time in the 200 metres and also top Iraq’s 100 metre table. “Dana is a self-made athlete,” said Abdel-Rahman. “She is a champion and that deserves everyone’s respect.”

Sadly, despite years of dedicated work to prepare the sprinter for the Olympics, he can only watch his protege perform on TV, after a  decision by the Iraqi sports ministry barred him from going to Beijing.