Refugees racing World Championships send hope back home

Hours before the better-known competitors took to the course for the Team Time Trial Mixed Relay at the UCI Road World Championships, a group of riders from Afghanistan were the first down the starting ramp and, not much later, the UCI World Cycling Centre team with two refugee riders.

The fact that one of the Afghan riders fell on the start ramp, that the team struggled to stay together on the hilly, technical course in Glasgow, and that they finished dead last isn't the point.

These riders survived the takeover of their country by the Taliban, some evacuating as the previous government collapsed and gun-wielding militants brought back a conservative culture that prohibits women from attending school or riding bikes.

More attention may have been on the riders from Ukraine, who have been impacted by the more recent Russian invasion, and less on the one rider from Syria, who has been away from his homeland for a decade. They raced to bring hope to people still in their country and the diaspora of people from their homeland.

The most experienced in the team is Ahmad Badreddin Wais, who fled war-torn Syria with his family in 2013 and endured an arduous five-month journey, eventually settling in Switzerland.

Wais represented Syria at the World Championships from 2017 to 2019 before opting to renounce his national designation. He competed at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 with the Refugee Cycling Team, and this time for the World Cycling Centre in Glasgow, finishing 14th. Wais pointed out to Cyclingnews that the situation in Syria seems to have been forgotten.

"It's still difficult for the Syrian people," Wais said, adding that racing on a high level at such a prestigious competition can bring hope to his compatriots as some already do for him.

"They follow me, and they are like big fans. All of them - they watch the races, and they help me to be also hopeful.

"I hope I will inspire the younger generation [of cyclists], and they will one day be with one strong team and to have a normal start."

For the Afghan riders, it was their first major competition, and they seemed somewhat overwhelmed by the attention but powered through to deliver a similar message to the world, not to forget the people of their country.

Zahra Rezayee finished the women's leg together with Fariba Hashimi after surviving a fall on the start ramp and a puncture. She spoke through an interpreter in the mixed zone, saying she was proud to represent the women of Afghanistan.

Rezayee says she was "one of the lucky girls that could leave Afghanistan", having been part of the group helped by the UCI and Italian federation to escape, and who is living in Italy.

"I want the world to support Afghan women to be their voice. They should feel free; they should go to school, go to university and college.

"I am happy I had the opportunity to represent the many millions of Afghan women who are now currently in Afghanistan and are banned from going to school."

Rezayee is training to race at the Olympic Games in Paris, much like her compatriot Masomah Ali Zada did in Tokyo. Just getting onto those stages proves a point beyond sport.

If she could send a message to her fellow women in Afghanistan, she said it would be that "all Afghan women should have the ability to do what they want, to follow their dreams and if they feel free, if they can go to university and have a job, they can be powerful women in the world."

Present during an interview with Hashimi was Afghan Cycling Federation President Fazli Ahmad Fazli. He has continued to hold power as the leader of the federation in exile and trying to keep the organisation going with the help of the UCI.

"Obviously, this is the worst-case scenario. But you have to be patient. You should wait for the right moment," Fazli told Cyclingnews. "We don't want cycling to be removed forever in my country."

The UCI has been supporting the Afghan federation, holding a national championship for women - won by Fariba Hashimi - and Fazli said they are building a foundation to take back home if and when the political situation allows.

"Cycling has a lot of history in Afghanistan - we had a race in 1962 in Afghanistan. We started women's cycling, and we had 500-plus women riding for Afghanistan. Cycling is not new in my country. It is an exciting sport. We are trying to show that not only in cycling but in any sport, on any stage, Afghan women perform, and they can do their best."

Hashimi, through Fazli as interpreter, said, "It is a proud moment to represent the 20 million different women of Afghanistan representing them in this grand stage.

"I will try my best to represent you on any stage, if it is Olympic or if in the World Champs or in the Tour de France," she said to her compatriots in Afghanistan. "I will be proudly representing you. And I will just give you hope that we never give up and we can do well when the opportunity comes."

The UCI partnered with IsraAid to evacuate riders from Afghanistan and, along with other agencies and individuals who worked tirelessly to bring especially the threatened women to safety, have settled 15 women in Switzerland, two dozen in Italy, more than 30 in Canada and some in the United States.

Fazli says there are still hundreds in Afghanistan who could not get out and who have been "kept aside" after the situation in Ukraine created another refugee crisis.

"The situation was changed because of the other crisis in Ukraine. So we have been kept aside. This is one of the scenarios, but we are not giving up. There is hope. And in Afghanistan, we always live with hope, and we just fight for the day things are bright again in Afghanistan."