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Discover moreSport is freedom, beyond every flag, against every dictatorship. These words are not just a title, but the experience of those who have lived sports under regimes, who cross and challenge dictatorships, who survive war. Iranian Hadi Tiranvalipour and Afghan Mahdia Sharifi, taekwondo athletes of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, bring to Cortina two different yet converging stories: stories of sporting excellence grown in contexts where control, repression, and the denial of individual freedoms are daily experiences.
For both, sport has not been an escape from reality, but a language for resistance and a ground for personal affirmation. In their journey, the discipline of taekwondo intertwines with the defense of fundamental rights: to choose, to compete, to exist without fear. In a time when the Olympics are called to reflect on their global meaning, this dialogue invites us to look beyond flags and beyond conventional narratives.
At the heart of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, we place the political and human value of sport as a space for rights, self-determination, and dignity in the center of the debate in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Present at the meeting will be Angelo Cito - President Italian Taekwondo Federation
Mahdia Sharifi was 17 when she became a refugee in 2021. She was forced to flee her homeland, Afghanistan, in search of safety. She started practicing taekwondo at the age of 11 and became a member of the Afghan national team at 15. She won a gold medal at the 2019 University Championships in South Korea. Today, Mahdia lives in Italy, where she trains with the Italian national team and volunteers with humanitarian foundations.
Hadi Tiranvalipour was a member of the Iranian national taekwondo team for eight years, as well as a sports presenter who encouraged people to practice sports every day. While competing for Iran, he won numerous national and international competitions. He was forced to leave Iran and became a refugee in Italy in 2022, where he now trains with the Italian national taekwondo team at the Olympic Sports Center in Rome.
