Kimia Alizadeh, an Iranian taekwondo athlete competing for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team has defeated two-time Olympic gold medalist Jade Jones in the round-of-16.
Alizadeh became the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal competing for Iran after claiming bronze in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In 2020, she announced that she permanently left her birth country for Europe amid searing criticism of the regime in Tehran.
Alizadeh will face Lijun Zhou in the quarterfinals.
“I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years,” the athlete wrote in an Instagram post in 2020 explaining why she was defecting.
Alizadeh was granted refugee status in Germany and now lives in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg, according to Reuters.
According to the IOC website, 29 athletes will compete for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in the Games.
Read more about her here.
