«It was a surreal moment, my heart started racing,» Khudadadi said of the moment she won the bronze in the women’s taekwondo competition.
“It was a surreal moment, my heart started racing,” 25-year-old Zakia Khudadadi said of the moment she “threw her helmet and mouthpiece into the air” after defeating Turkey’s Ekinci Nurcihan in the women’s taekwondo competition Thursday in Paris, at the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Fox News reported that Khudadadi was “smuggled” out of Afghanistan during the end days of the deadly 2021 withdrawal, which killed 13 U.S. troops, to Paris and then to Tokyo in time to compete in the Tokyo Paralympic Games, held August 24-September 5, 2021. She was concerned that a Taliban takeover of her home country likely meant that restrictions on women would prevent her from competing in the sport she loves.
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The Aghan native, who was born without a forearm, did not return to her home country.
