A sort ofnas Al Khalifa was completely soaked and frozen. He wanted to go back to his room as soon as possible, back to his cell phone.He wants to try to contact his family in Syria to see if they can complete his two canoe rides Paralympics In Tokyo. “It’s very difficult because we often don’t have electricity or internet in Syria,” said a refugee living in Halle on the Saale. “The last time I contacted them was a week ago.” He has not seen them for ten days. Years.
Before that, the 28-year-old had to give many interviews. Everyone wants to hear his story. Whether in kayaking or in va’a (an outreaching canoe modeled after the boat used in Tahiti), he was in a leading position, but it was still a happy ending. “I am very proud of myself,” Al Khalifa told the German News Agency in fluent German: “My life must be back again.”
In the past few years, this has often been bad for him. Ten years ago, he fled his hometown before the war.He spent loudly German wave He spent the first two years in the camp and then worked as a fruit picker in Turkey for two years. After a 31-day journey, he took a crowded boat via Greece to Germany.
Fall off the roof
He worked as a craftsman there and installed solar panels. In 2018, he fell from the roof of Magdeburg. “It’s wet, I slipped and fell”, He told on ZDF“When I opened my eyes again, the doctor was standing next to me. They said you had a serious accident and you can’t walk anymore. It’s like someone stuck a knife in your heart. I’m still young, now I’m I can no longer work or walk. I thought my life was over. I tried to commit suicide twice.”
Former Bulgarian Olympian Ognjana Duschewa took him to Halle. “I saw a strong boy in a wheelchair with very sad eyes,” she reported. She told him that she would take him to Tokyo in a canoe. Al Khalifa looked at her questioningly: “What is a canoe? What is Tokyo? And why should I go there?”
“I want to win for my brother”
He actually started on Thursday. Less than two years after he sat on a sports boat for the first time and kept falling. When his brother was shot in Syria, his motivation almost disappeared. But what followed was resistance. “I want to win for my brother,” he said. He was there as a starter for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) refugee team in Japan, which for him was a victory that continued to motivate him. “I saw a lot of people here who are worse than me, and they continue to fight,” he said on Thursday: “When I see these people, I must continue to fight.” He wants to return to Paris in 2024. Maybe it’s for the refugee team. Maybe it’s for Germany. In any case, he wants to go canoeing. His boat is like his legs, and he said: “When I sit on the boat, I feel very normal.”
In the long run, he hopes to return to his homeland. “After the war, I want to go back,” he emphasized: “Because I was born and raised there. And because my family was there.” They might have done everything on Thursday to watch his wonderful performance.
