- author, Paul Adams
- role, BBC News
- Reported by Jerusalem
As Palestinian-American swimmer Valerie Tarazi trained for the final time in Paris last week, she recalled the moment when legendary swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in Beijing in 2008.
“That was my first time being like, ‘Wow, I want to be an Olympian,'” she said.
Paris is a dream come true for countless athletes who will be stepping onto sport’s biggest stage, but after more than nine months of war in Gaza and the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians, Tarazi said her participation also represents a moment of remembrance.
“I’m honoring them,” she said.
Tarazi, who will compete in the 200m individual medley next Friday, is a child of the vast Palestinian diaspora, born and raised in the United States, but she is proud of her ties to one of the oldest Christian families in the Gaza Strip.
She said four of her relatives were killed when the church was hit by heavy Israeli bombing last December.
“It’s a huge burden for us,” she said of Gaza’s rising death toll, which now approaches 40,000.
“These are our friends, our family, our teammates, our national team members,” she said.
The International Olympic Committee has recognised the state of Palestine since 1995. Three-quarters of UN member states also currently recognise Palestine, but not the United States, Britain or the host country of this year’s Olympics.
Despite the grueling training schedule and sacrifices necessary to compete at this level, Taraji is keenly aware that she is in a unique and privileged position to have been given the opportunity to hoist the flag at the world’s greatest sporting event.
“The little pain I feel is nothing compared to the suffering they have to go through every day,” she said of her compatriots back home.
Her teammate, Tamar Cawdor, is less fortunate and is struggling to maintain her sporting ambitions.
His home in Gaza was destroyed and he and his family were forced to relocate twice during the war. They now live in a tent in Deir el-Bala, in the middle of the Gaza Strip.
“My dream was to go to the Olympics,” he told the BBC this week.
“Unfortunately, because of the war and the situation, we were not able to leave Gaza.”
Caudo, a 1,500m runner, has already represented his country twice.
A year ago, at the Arab Games in Algeria, it was the first time he put on running spikes, and the first time he ran on anything other than concrete.
In September, he attended the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China with Tarazi.
They were still there when war broke out in Gaza in early October, and Kaoud said he had to go home.
His best times are well below the Olympic qualification mark, but any slim chance he might compete in Paris, even as a wild card, quickly disappeared.
“I wanted to compete against the best athletes in the world, like Jakob,” he said, referring to reigning 1,500m world champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
“I wanted to run with him and get a feel for what it was like to compete against the best in the world.”
Amid the tents, dust and date palms of Deir el-Balah, he still trains in a white Palestinian uniform, watched over by a small group of bewildered children.
His former training ground, Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City, is a wasteland strewn with rubbish and Palestinian families who have taken refuge among the stands.
And coach Bilal Abu Saman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in December, according to the Palestinian Football Association, one of an estimated 182 players and sports officials killed since October.
Kawd knows his time hasn’t come yet, and if he can’t get out of Gaza, he fears he may never get out.
“The war destroyed everything and shattered our dreams,” he said.
“I hope to leave Gaza, attend a training camp, regain my old fitness and come back stronger than before.”
Another Palestinian swimmer, Yazan al-Bawwab, returned to the Paris pool and said he felt proud to be an ambassador for a place where playing sport is a challenge in itself.
“There are no swimming pools in Palestine,” he said. “There’s no infrastructure.”
Like Tarazi, Al Bawwab was born and raised abroad but wears her uniform and her identity with great pride.
“France does not recognise Palestine as a state,” Al Bawwab said defiantly, repeating the same sentence for emphasis.
“I’m here, flying the flag.”
