For the first time in Olympic history, eight Iranian female athletes will compete in London 2012. All of the athletes have qualified officially, with none of the them needing to use a wildcard. Small Media will cover Iran's participation throughout the Olympic games.
- As the Olympics gets underway, Small Media follows the struggles and successes of the eight Iranian women taking part in London 2012. This report, which translates key news stories from Farsi-language media, will be updated as the Olympics progresses. To see full profiles of the women click here. The report is presented in reverse chronological order, with the most recent updates appearing at the top. Be sure to check back for more throughout the games!
- Day Four: Tuesday 31 July 2012
- Iranian archer Zahra Dehghan competed against Mexican archer Avita Mariana, losing the match 2-6 and being eliminated from the games. Dehghan, who competed in the London Olympics without a coach, said, “I started well, but I couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the game ... We struggled with many problems throughout this competition, the biggest of which being not having a coach". She continues, "When our rivals were in training camps and getting prepared for the Olympics, we were trying to [make sure] we'd simply just get to London. At that time it wasn’t even clear who would go to London ... I played well today but not having a coach had a huge impact at the end of the day".
In our previous report profiling the eight Iranian women athletes at the London Olympics we highlighted that the reason Zahra Dehghan competed without a coach was because the Iranian Archery Federation fired the coaches who has been training with her for years. One month before her departure to London, she quit her training camp in protest, and the Iranian Archery Federation retaliated by replacing her with another archer. Then, in the sending off ceremony, just 9 days before the Olympics, Mohammad Aliabadi, the president of Iran's National Olympic Committee announced that Dehghan would go to London. These last minute changes meant that her coaches couldnt get the ID cards they needed to go to the Olympics.
During the ranking round that took place on Friday 27 July, Iranian news agencies had announced that Iranian archer Milad Vaziri would coach Dehghan, seeing as he was also competing. Dehghan says that Vaziri’s presence was beneficial but that at first he was prohibited from coaching her: ”Mr. Vaziri was not allowed to sit on the coach's chair, but when they found out I didn’t have a coach, they let him". - Day Two: Sunday 29 July 2012
Iranian rower Solmaz Abbasi took part in the repechage round today and came second in her heat, qualifying her for the quarterfinals. Afshin Farzam, Abbasi's coach, was ecstatic with her performance: “Abbasi was behind her rivals until the final 500 meters. This was our tactic. We chose this tactic based on the knowledge we had of her rivals from Myanmar and Tunisia. They always start the game at full capacity, but they can't keep it up until the finish line". He added, "I knew they would put all they had into the first 1500 meters to get in front of the others. I told Abbasi to row so that she didn't lag too far behind. Everything happened according to plan and our rower overtook the other two in the last 500 meters and came second". 
Abbasi (pictured above) started the games with an injury. Her rib muscles are swollen and her coach's advice was to not push too hard in the first round: "Given her injury I asked her not to overdo herself in the primary round because she would easily progress to the next round through the repechage. If she had pushed too hard she wouldn't have been able to compete". Farzam also believes that being at the opening ceremony had also affected her performance. On Tuesday 31 July 2012 in her quarter final round, Abassi will compete with five other rowers, from Paraguay, New Zealand, Australia, Germany and Mexico.- Day One: Saturday 28 July 2012
