Refugee Team canoeist Soltani turns heartbreak into positive spur

Indeed the 28-year-old arrives at the Games as champion of Austria, the country where she sought asylum in 2022 when she realised returning to her family in Iran was out of the question following an artistic swimming training camp in Spain.

She was provided safe haven there after a desperate call for help to Uwe Schlokat, whom she had met when he visited Iran five years previously. He was the only person she knew in Europe.

"There's an artistic swimming camp in Spain, and because of the security reason, I couldn't go back anymore to Iran," she told AFP.

"So I only knew one person in Europe, and he was living in Austria. He is like my second father, and he helped me a lot.

"I go to Austria, and I asked for asylum. I integrated into this culture. And I have good friends and good people around me."

Soltani is remarkably self-assured given she has not seen her family for a couple of years and is unlikely to see them in the forseeable future.

"Everything that happens to you has two sides, and it depends on you how do you look at the things," said Soltani.

"So, you can see them as an opportunity to improve, or you can see them as something that breaks you down.

"Everything is about how you think about the things. Of course, it's hard at first because we are all human with emotions, but I think the biggest achievement in my life is I always try to find a solution and keep going, and that's why I'm here."

'I'm special'

She says that along with her fellow Refugee Team members -- there are 36 in all -- they are not just competing for personal glory but for a far greater cause.

"We represent more than 100 million displaced people, which I wanted to be a role model for them, to tell them, like, when the things look really bad, you just have to keep going," she said.

"You should not get disappointed, and you should never give up."

Soltani, who competes in the 500-metre Sprint on August 7, had already shown her prowess for Iran in both artistic swimming and then kayaking, winning silver in the latter at the 2018 Asian Under-23 championships.

Soltani -- who has a degree in accountancy -- showed her stubborn side when she was told she would never make it in kayaking.

"I was just watching the Iranian national canoe/kayak team that day and I just love it.

"I decided to start and everyone told me it's too late, you cannot.

"Because everyone who do like professional sport, they started at a really early age.

"But what they didn't think about was that I was a swimmer, an artistic swimmer. And I was multiple champion.

"So I started kayaking and this is another thing that maybe it looks impossible for other people but doesn't mean that it's impossible for you -- so give yourself a chance in any situation."

Yet she says her ambitions lie on a far higher plane -- Olympic gold in Los Angeles in 2028, whether for Austria she does not know as despite being their national champion she has yet to be given Austrian nationality.

"I know I'm special, and I knew it from when I was a child, because I always liked to do big things," she said.

"And so I knew it, and I'm excited to see what I will do in the future. Because I know I want to be world famous."