Iran's Olympic champion sheds tears in heartbreaking loss of last stand
Rows of destroyed seating are visible among the debris of the Azadi Sports Complex indoor arena in Tehran, following a wave of strikes by the United States and Israel that left the venue in destruction. Stringer/dpa Iranian refugee weightlifter Yekta Jamali hopes to win medals for adopted nation Germany at the European championships next month, but will have one eye on her birth country. "Sometimes I'm sad, sometimes I cry," Jamali told dpa about when she thinks about the protester crackdown and war in Iran.
"Normally I always smile and I'm always happy. " Her family remain in Iran, which has been attacked since the end of February by Israel and the US and has since retaliated across the Middle East. "I hope my family is OK.
I didn't expect the war to go on so long," she said. Jamali fled at the age of 17, using the 2022 junior world championships in Greece to reach Germany. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, she competed for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Refugee Team.
The 21-year-old will now wear Germany colours for the first time in a major championship in Georgia from April 19 after receiving her naturalization certificate just before the start of the Iran conflict. Jamali attends demonstrations against the Iranian government in Germany and supports exiled Iranian opposition politician Reza Pahlavi. He is the son of the last shah, who was overthrown in the Islamic revolution in 1979.
"I believe 99% of our people want him to be president," she said. "But I don't think I want to go back to Iran. To see my family, yes, but not permanently.