Meet refugee athlete Farid Walizadeh: who fought his whole life to survive and now box at Tokyo 2020

Farid Walizadeh knows how to fight, both in life and in the boxing ring.

He's done his fair share of both.

After being separated from his family, at just eight years old, he left war-torn Afghanistan and walked to Turkey.

"I saw people being killed and people giving up on life, throwing themselves off cliffs, into the mountains. I do not. As a kid, I always went ahead, always walking to reach a destination. My destiny."

For several years he he travelled through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. Before reaching the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Istanbul he spent time in prison and an orphanage.

“When I was nine years old, I was in a prison for travelling in an illegal way to Europe – and life was way harder. But even then, as a child, I was trying to see the positive sides of that. I was drawing and painting to try to pass the time, because with every darkness there’s a light. Every day the night comes, but the next day the light will come back," Walizadeh told Olympics.com.

Walizadeh is a fighter in every sense of the word.

He's fought the last 24 years of his life to survive and now he's been presented with a very different type of challenge - an opportunity to fight at the Olympic Games in July.

Walizadeh is one of 37 IOC Refugee Athlete Scholarship holders hoping to be part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team for Tokyo 2020, that will be named in June 2020.

The power of sport

Walizadeh took up taekwondo and kung-fu in Turkey as a 10 year old.

He says sport has been instrumental in his life. It helped him cope with trauma from his past, but also, at times enabled him to protect himself from being harmed.

“Sport actually changed my life. Because I had nothing, and I didn’t even have a dream. In my place as a refugee, when you are on a long journey and you are always in the refugee sanctuaries, the education sanctuaries and in prison without having anything, you cannot even dream – because you need courage to dream.

“But when I started sport, first I started to forget my trauma. Then, I started to learn how to deal with my trauma and stress. And then I started to see that I could make sport my life – and each day my dream became bigger. And today, I want to go to the Olympic Games, which are the biggest sports event in the world.

“Sport gave me the hope, and the power – mentally and physically – to dream, and to try again. I know that I’m going to fall down a lot of times, but I am going to stand up once again because of the power of my dream.”

As a 15-year-old he was given two choices by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - residency permit with refugee status in USA or Portugal.

"I didn't know anything about Portugal, except that it was the land of Cristiano Ronaldo."

In 2012 he found refuge in Portugal and it has been his home ever since.

Shortly after arriving he began boxing and a year later he won the 2013 National title.

He now resides in Lisbon, and along with an arduous training schedule, he studies architecture.

Rising from adversity

As a one-year-old boy, Walizadeh lost both his parents.

His father died and his mother who was pregnant, was being abused for being Ismaili. She was forced to flee to the mountains.

Despite the hardship he has faced and all he has overcome, Walizadeh is a beacon of strength and positivity.

“With every darkness there’s a light.” - Farid Walizadeh

Even with the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the Tokyo 2020 Games for a year, he can still find a silver lining.

“I always try to see the positive sides of problems. Maybe some athletes are sad about this, but for me it’s an opportunity to prepare one year longer, and learn some more techniques and skills.

“I am going to try to do my best and I will train more. When I train hard, I see my dream come nearer. And if I do the same tomorrow, I am even closer to my dream – and that gives me my motivation. There is always hope, so I will do my best to be there in Tokyo."

He continues to live his life as a role model and inspiration.

“I have learned that the most important thing is patience. Nothing will stay forever. You may have a problem today, and then tomorrow another problem. But they will pass – and this problem will pass too.

“During this time, I want people to see the positives of everything, and to try the things that you don’t have time to do in normal life when you have school, work or training. We can use this time for ourselves, to learn about ourselves. It’s for our health, so my message is to stay home, save yourself and save others. Be your own hero.”

From Tokyo 2020 and beyond

Walizadeh's past gives him faith to believe in himself and believe in his future.

“Boxing gave me the self-confidence. Because if you don’t have confidence, you can’t do anything. For example, in the past, I couldn’t even speak with people because I was still so deeply inside my trauma. I couldn’t even say my name in school, because I didn’t have that confidence.

While his focus is currently on making the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Refugee Team, he's ambitious about life after boxing.

“After sport, I want to finish my architecture course at Lusíada University in Lisbon. It is hard work, but I want to build from that so that I can design and create new things to replace those that have been destroyed by war in the country where I was born, and in other countries.”