Palestine’s sole athlete takes centre stage at World Athletics Championships

TOKYO: Three months before the World Athletics Championships, Muhammad Dwedar was training for the 800-metre race on the streets in Jericho, West Bank. His mother would have preferred he stayed indoors, lest he become another Palestinian athlete victim to Israeli raids or killing, but there were no sports facilities to train at, much less the world-class technology his competitors had. All he had was a dream to represent Palestine and put his country on the global sporting map. It was bittersweet for him when he did just that last week at the Japan National Stadium. He finished last in his heat and second from last overall in 1:53.63. It was faster than what he ran at the Paris Olympics, but for the 24-year-old lone athlete representing Palestine at the championships, it wasn’t enough.

“I am sorry to the people in Palestine, I can do it, just two laps, I know I can do better,” the words tumbled out of Dwedar in between deep pants, beads of sweat materialising on his chest heaving up and down. The disappointment in his time spoke to a deeper sense of representation and belonging, especially in the context of Israel having killed more than 800 athletes since its war on Gaza. “I need to send a message to the world,” Dwedar said, the six-odd journalists pushing their microphones close to him.

“The children of Palestine, we have a lot of dreams; we have eyes, we have arms, we have muscles,” he said, choking back tears as the sentence stuck in his throat. A deep breath later, he resumed his post-race analysis. “I know I can do 1:46, I know my body is capable of doing that,” Dwedar said. He had been training in Germany for two months prior to the championships, but that was the first time this season he trained on a synthetic rubber track with spikes.

“I need to do better for Palestine,” he said. “I need to improve so I can give Palestine a medal. I need to do that. “This is very difficult for me but I have two, three years to do it.” “I can leave Palestine for a few years to train abroad. but in the end, I need to go back to Palestine,” he said. ”This is my country, my city.” Monitoring Desk