Iran’s only female Olympic medallist, 21, announces she has defected to Europe

‘None of us matter to them’: Iran’s only female Olympic medallist, 21, announces she has defected to Europe three years after bagging taekwondo bronze in Rio because she cannot stand to live in a country where she is told what to say and wear

  • Kimia Alizadeh blamed the ‘hypocrisy’ of a system that ‘humiliates athletes’  
  • Ms Alizadeh won a bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics 
  • She said she was ‘one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran’

Iran’s only female Olympic medallist Kimia Alizadeh has announced that she has permanently left her country, citing the ‘hypocrisy’ of a system she claims humiliates athletes while using them for political ends.

‘Should I start with hello, goodbye, or condolences?’ she wrote on Instagram, as Iran reeled from Wednesday’s accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner that killed all 176 people onboard.

Ms Alizadeh, who won a bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics, cited oppression by authorities in the Islamic republic.

Iranian Olympic medallist Kimia Alizadeh says she has permanently left Iran, citing oppression by authorities

Criticising Iran’s political system for ‘hypocrisy’, ‘lying’, ‘injustice’ and ‘flattery’, she said she wanted nothing more than ‘taekwondo, security and a happy and healthy life’.

‘I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran with whom they have been playing for years,’ the 21-year-old wrote.

‘I wore whatever they told me to wear,’ she said, referring to the Islamic veil, which is compulsory for all women in public in Iran.

‘I repeated everything they told me to say,’ she wrote.

'Should I start with hello, goodbye, or condolences?' she wrote on Instagram. Pictured is Alizadeh with her father, Keivan

‘Should I start with hello, goodbye, or condolences?’ she wrote on Instagram. Pictured is Alizadeh with her father, Keivan

She continued: ‘None of us matter to them.’

‘No one invited me to Europe,’ she wrote, without saying where she was.

On Thursday, news of Alizadeh’s disappearance shocked the country.

Iranian parliamentarian Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh had demanded answers, accusing ‘incompetent officials’ of allowing Iran’s ‘human capital to flee’ the country.

Criticising Iran's political system for 'hypocrisy', 'lying', 'injustice' and 'flattery', she said she wanted nothing more than 'taekwondo, security and a happy and healthy life'

Criticising Iran’s political system for ‘hypocrisy’, ‘lying’, ‘injustice’ and ‘flattery’, she said she wanted nothing more than ‘taekwondo, security and a happy and healthy life’

The semi-official ISNA news agency carried a report on Thursday saying: ‘Shock for Iran’s taekwondo. Kimia Alizadeh has emigrated to The Netherlands.’

ISNA wrote that it believed that Alizadeh, who is reportedly training in The Netherlands, is hoping to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but not under the Iranian flag.

Without saying anything of her plans, Alizadeh assured the ‘dear Iranian people’ that she would remain ‘a child of Iran wherever’ she is.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk