Iran defector loses to old friend and former taekwondo teammate at Paris Olympics

By AP 8 August 2024, 2:06 pm

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Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh, right, reacts at the end of a women's 57kg Taekwondo match against Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

One wore a veil, the other fought with her head bare.

Nahid Kiyani Chandeh and Kimia Alizadeh were once friends and roommates as part of the junior Iran taekwondo team. Now an entire world separates them.

They clashed Thursday at the Paris Olympics in the 57-kilogram division and Alizadeh, who defected from Iran, lost in her bid to win a gold medal for her new country, Bulgaria.

Kiyani Chandeh, the current world champion, came out on top of a very tense fight that was settled by a referee decision after the athletes, both 26, finished tied with seven points each in the decisive third round.

Alizadeh had a three-point lead in the decider with six seconds left, but Kiyani Chandeh leveled with a kick to the head and was handed the victory by superiority.

Alizadeh was the first Iranian female athlete ever to win an Olympic medal when she claimed bronze in Rio de Janeiro as an 18-year-old.

Her win catapulted her to fame, but she grew frustrated with life in Iran. As she announced she was leaving her country four years ago, she accused Iranian officials of sexism and criticized wearing the mandatory hijab headscarf.

At the time, she described herself as “one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran.”