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Kimia Alizadeh Zonouzi ( fa, کیمیا علیزاده زنوزی, Kīmiyā Alīzādeh Zonūzī; born 10 July 1998) is an
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
Taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...
athlete. Alizadeh won a
bronze medal in the taekwondo 57 kg weight class at the
2016 Summer Olympics in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
by defeating Swedish athlete
Nikita Glasnović. This made her the first Iranian woman to win a medal at a Summer Olympics.
She also won a
gold medal in the women's 63-kg class at the Nanjing 2014
Youth Olympic Games
The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) is an international multi-sport event for athletes between 15 and 18 years old, organized by the International Olympic Committee. The games are held every four years in staggered summer and winter events consiste ...
.
She beat London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 gold medallist
Jade Jones at the 2015 World Championship to win a bronze medal.
She also won a silver medal two years later at the
2017 World Taekwondo Championships
The 2017 World Taekwondo Championships was the 23rd edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and was held in Muju, South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southe ...
.
In January 2020, Alizadeh announced that she was leaving Iran permanently for Europe. Explaining her
defection, she stated, "I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years." She stated she did not intend to compete for Iran in the
2020 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...
, and expressed desire to compete for her current place of residence, Germany.
Having been licensed to compete in the Tokyo Olympics, she was finally represented by the
Refugee Olympic Team.
Early life
Kimia was born in
Karaj
Karaj ( fa, کرج, ) is the capital of Alborz Province, Iran, and effectively a satellite city of Tehran. Although the county hosts a population around 1.97 million, as recorded in the 2016 census, most of the county is rugged mountain. The urb ...
. Her family are Iranian of
Azerbaijani origin. Her father is from
Zonuz near
Tabriz
Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...
and her mother is from
Ardabil
Ardabil (, fa, اردبیل, Ardabīl or ''Ardebīl'') is a city in northwestern Iran, and the capital of Ardabil Province. As of the 2022 census, Ardabil's population was 588,000. The dominant majority in the city are ethnic Iranian Azerbaija ...
.
Until after the 2016 Olympics, her last name was incorrectly recorded as Zenoorin.
Taekwondo career
Alizadeh at 18 years of age won a
bronze medal in the taekwondo 57 kg weight class at the
2016 Summer Olympics in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
by defeating Swedish athlete
Nikita Glasnović.
Her victory made her the first Iranian woman to win a medal at a
Summer Olympics.
She also won a
gold medal in the women's 63-kg class at the
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
2014 Youth Olympics.
She beat London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 gold medallist
Jade Jones at the 2015 World Championship to win a bronze medal.
She also won a silver medal two years later at the
2017 World Taekwondo Championships
The 2017 World Taekwondo Championships was the 23rd edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and was held in Muju, South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southe ...
.
She was listed in
100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2019 by
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
.
During the
2020 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...
, Alizadeh represented the
Refugee Olympic Team, defeating Iranian athlete
Nahid Kiani and pulling an upset against number one ranked
Jade Jones before losing out on a bronze medal.
Defection
On 10 January 2020, Alizadeh announced she was
defecting and leaving her birth country, with searing criticism of the regime of Iran. She did not compete for Iran in the
2020 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...
, and considered competing for Germany, but ultimately competed on the refugee team.
She wrote an
Instagram post explaining she was defecting because of
constraint of women in Iran, calling herself "one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who
ran's rulershave been playing with for years."
"They took me wherever they wanted. I wore whatever they said. Every sentence they ordered me to say, I repeated. Whenever they saw fit, they exploited me," she wrote, adding that credit always went to those in charge.
She wrote further that she "didn't want to sit at the table of hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery" any longer, nor remain complicit with the regime's "corruption and lies."
Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, a member of Iran's parliament, accused “incompetent officials” of allowing Iran's “human capital to flee”.
In the months prior to her defection a number of top Iranian sports figures had decided to stop representing — or to physically leave — Iran.
In September 2019,
Saeid Mollaei
Saeid Mollaei ( fa, سعید ملایی; mn, Саид Моллай; az, Səid Mollayi) was born on January 5, 1992, in Tehran to ethnic Azerbaijani parents originally from Khoy. In 2001, at the age of 10, he entered the Persian Gulf Judo Scho ...
, who practices judo and was world champion, left Iran for Germany after Iranian officials allegedly pressured him to throw a match to avoid competing against Israelis.
Alireza Firouzja
Alireza Firouzja ( fa, علیرضا فیروزجا, ; born 18 June 2003) is an Iranian and French chess grandmaster. Firouzja is the youngest ever 2800- rated player, beating the previous record set by Magnus Carlsen by more than five months ...
, who was Iran's top-rated chess champion, decided to stop playing for Iran in December 2019 because of Iran's informal ban on competing against Israeli players.
See also
*
List of Iranian defectors
This is a list of individuals who have defected from Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan a ...
References
External links
Official website*
Additional sources
Kimia Alizadeh Zenoorin and Hedaya Wahba lead charge of Muslim women in taekwondo''Official website of 2016 Summer Olympics''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alizadeh, Kimia
1998 births
Living people
Iranian female taekwondo practitioners
Taekwondo practitioners at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics
People from Karaj
Taekwondo practitioners at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic bronze medalists for Iran
Iranian Azerbaijanis
Iranian emigrants to Germany
Sportspeople of Iranian descent
Olympic taekwondo practitioners of Iran
Olympic medalists in taekwondo
World Taekwondo Championships medalists
BBC 100 Women
Defecting sportspeople of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Youth Olympic gold medalists for Iran
Asian Taekwondo Championships medalists
Taekwondo practitioners at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Refugee Olympic Team at the 2020 Summer Olympics
21st-century Iranian women