For Iranian canoeist Saman Soltani, the Olympics are more than just a dream. Her participation is also a statement of freedom. The 28-year-old is part of the Refugee Olympic Team after being unable to return to her native Iran because of a banned bikini photo.

“I want to say to all the women, all the refugees, all the people who have been through hard times, who have had a hard life, who have been broken, that life goes on and you can get back up again,” she said. International Olympic Committee

Today, Sultani reached the quarter-finals of the 500m canoe race with Dutchwoman Ruth Forsselman. She finished at the bottom of her series and will not qualify for the semi-finals, but Forsselman will.

Soltani began synchronized swimming as a young girl, winning the national title for 10 consecutive years. As a woman in Iran who was not allowed to compete internationally without a hijab, she switched to rowing at the age of 18, a sport in which she could wear a hijab.

From 2016 to 2022, she was part of the Iranian national rowing team, winning gold in her country in the 500m (K1) and 200m (K2) races in 2019.

Her dream was to participate in the Tokyo Games on behalf of Iran. But then came the Corona virus, the support from the Iranian association disappeared and she decided to stop rowing completely.

She began training young talents in synchronized swimming and hoped to return to synchronized swimming herself.

“I had to be a role model for these girls, and for many girls and women in Iran,” she told the ICF.

In 2022, her life changed dramatically. During a swimming camp in Barcelona, ​​she posted photos of herself in a bikini on Instagram. While she was waiting for her flight back, her parents called: She was a famous athlete, and the Iranian morality police had also seen the bikini photos.

“My parents called me in a panic and told me not to return to Iran,” she said in an interview with the Austrian Olympic Federation.

“At first I thought it was a joke. When they started crying, I realized I wouldn’t see them again for a long time. At that time, many women were being killed in Iran, including two of my former teammates. It was clear to me: I can’t go back.”

She knew only one person in Europe, an Austrian she had met years earlier in Iran. He arranged for her to come to Vienna, where she applied for asylum.

There she ended up in a black hole. “I panicked, it was very difficult for me. I had nightmares every night, I cried myself to sleep, I dreamed that someone came and forced me back,” the athlete told the ICF.

Her Austrian connection, whom she now considers a second father, encouraged her to take up rowing again. Six months later she had already won the Austrian regatta titles.

At the end of last year, Soltani qualified to join the International Olympic Committee’s refugee team, which includes 37 athletes from 12 countries, 14 of whom are from Iran.

Sultani is trying to be a role model at the Games. “We refugees have lost our family, our lives, our education,” she said in a video message on Instagram. “You have to be very strong when you lose everything.”