2024 Paris 'Oh!'lympians: Four inspiring stories of athletes who defied odds to achieve their most cherished dream

You might know that the very first edition of the Olympic Games was held in Athens, in Greece way back in 1896. But did you know that the tradition of giving away medals to the top competitors only began in the 1904 edition in St. Louis, Missouri in the USA?

For the first two editions (1896 and 1900), participation in these Games was literally a prize in itself. Ask any athlete even now and they will tell you that even though the top performers walk away with medals in each discipline, it’s the chance to become an Olympian that is the most cherished dream. A medal of course is the cherry on the cake.

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The Olympic Games (both summer and winter) always throw up numerous inspirational stories and the ongoing Paris Games are no different.

Here are four such stories - of athletes, fuelled by the passion of competing on the biggest sporting stage of them all, whose stories and achievements have become global talking points.

Yaylagul Ramazanova (Azerbaijan archer)

Yaylagul Ramazanova - Remember the name.

This 34-year-old archer, who has been termed a ‘bad-ass’ by some social media users, went to the Paris Olympics six and a half months pregnant. The bespectacled Ramazanova was competing in the women’s individual recurve archery event and was just the second archer from Azerbaijan to make the Olympic cut after compatriot Olga Senyuk, who took part in the Rio Games in 2016.

Did you know that Yaylagul began her sporting career as a shooter? Her coach felt that she would make a better archer because of her long arms. And that turned out to be great advice, considering the impression the first-time Olympian made in her maiden Olympic Games. After all, it wasn’t just Yalagul’s baby bump that made people sit up and notice her.

Yalagul, ranked 185th in the world, pulled off a huge upset when she humbled higher-ranked Chinese archer An Qixuan (World number 28) in the 1/32 elimination round. The sun was beating down on the Esplanade des Invalides, the archery venue for the Paris Olympics, with the temperature gauge touching 36 degrees Celsius. The match turned out to be an absolute edge-of-the-seat thriller, with both archers giving it their all, as they tied each other 5-5 sending the match into a single arrow shoot-off. And this is where Ramazanova, six and a half months pregnant, kept her nerve. She shot a 10 to An Qixuan’s 9 to notch up a memorable victory, both for herself and for Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani Archer Yaylagul Ramazanova , WR 186
while pregnant managed to defeat Chinese archer, WR 28!
This is Iconic !
Salute Queen 🙏👑#IndiaAtOlympics pic.twitter.com/WKSQg38tfQ

According to the Xinhua news agency, Ramazanova was quoted as saying, “I felt my baby kick me before I shot this last arrow, and then I shot a 10”.

Though Ramazanova was eliminated in the next round, the 1/16 elimination, by Germany’s Michelle Kroppen, who is ranked 172 places above the Azerbaijan archer (13th in the world), she has left an indelible impression on the 2024 Games.

Xinhua also quoted Ramazanova as saying, “During training for the Olympics, I didn’t feel uncomfortable with my pregnancy. Instead, I felt that I was not fighting alone, but fighting together with my baby”.

Interestingly, Ramazanova had beaten former World No. 1 Deepika (who was seeded second in this qualifying tournament) 6-4 in the third round of the final World quota tournament for the Paris Games in Antalya, Turkiye in June this year. The Azerbaijan archer was seeded 31st in this pre-Olympics tournament.

Ramazanova has also said that if her unborn son or daughter wants to be an archer she will train him or her herself.

Nada Hafez (Egyptian fencer)

Pregnant at the Olympics? Did someone say pregnant at the Olympics? Well then, meet Nada Hafez, who has gone from a little-known athlete to a headline grabber.

Hafez is a 26-year-old Egyptian fencer who participated in the Paris Olympics while being seven months pregnant. Some are still finding that tough to believe and that is not surprising.

Fencing is a gruelling sport that requires incredible agility, precision, and stamina, all while wearing a full-body suit and fencing mask. No wonder then that no one really caught on to the fact that Nada was pregnant while she was playing her first-round match of the women’s individual sabre competition, where she beat USA’s Elizabeth Tartakovsky, a former NCAA champion 15-13.

It was after this match that Hafez took to social media to announce to the world - “7 MONTHS PREGNANT OLYMPIAN! What appears to you as two players on the podium, they were actually three! It was me, my competitor, & my yet-to-come to our world, little baby! My baby & I had our fair share of challenges, be it both physical & emotional. The rollercoaster of pregnancy is tough on its own, but having to fight to keep the balance of life & sports was nothing short of strenuous, however worth it. I’m writing this post to say that pride fills my being for securing my place in the round of 16!….This specific Olympics was different. Three times Olympian, but this time carrying a little Olympian one!”

Hafez, who eventually lost to Jeon Hayoung of South Korea in the round of 16 by a scoreline of 7-15, was participating in her third Olympic Games.

Just imagine the grit and determination it takes to compete at the highest level while being seven months pregnant. Just like Ramazanova, Hafez is being hailed, and rightly so, as a truly inspirational figure. This, like always, is one of the hallmarks of an edition of the Olympic Games - that it continues to throw up stories like this, which inspire millions.

Hafez, who hails from Cairo, couldn’t have done this without the support of her family and it wasn’t surprising to see her thank her husband Ibrahim Ihab, and other members of her family for their support.

Hafez’s incredible resume doesn’t end there though. She is also an Egyptian National champion in gymnastics. She also attended the University of Cairo, earning a degree in medicine in 2022.

The 5-foot 5-inch right-handed fencer who is ranked 29th in the world in women’s sabre is also a clinical pathologist.

She has won one silver (2018) and two bronze medals (2014 & 2019) in the African Zonal Championships.

Now, this is one to-be-mommy who is quite the high achiever.

Yusuf Dikec (Turkish shooter)

Ask any shooter and they will tell you that shooting is one Olympic sport where age doesn’t really matter. True, that you won’t find say 70 or 80-year-olds competing, but if you are a physically and mentally fit 51-year-old, there’s nothing a 20-year-old can do that you can’t do better.

Just ask Turkish pistol shooter Yusuf Dikec.

Yusuf Dikec has become an internet sensation for competing with limited gears. AFP

Dikec, a mild-mannered bespectacled shooter has taken social media by storm for his calm demeanour and no-frills look at the firing line. Dikec, who shoots without wearing any blinders, lens or ear defenders and his non-shooting hand in his pocket, was one part of the Turkish Mixed Team shooting duo that won the silver medal in the Mixed Team 10m Air Pistol event, which was incredibly Turkiye’s (officially changed spelling) first ever Olympic medal in shooting. Dikec however was wearing earplugs. This was the same event in which Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh won the bronze medal.

Dikec also competed in the men’s 10m Air Pistol event in Paris, finishing 13th.

The 51-year-old Dikec, who hails from the Tasoluk village in the Goksun district of Turkiye, is no newcomer to the Olympics. He has shot in every edition since the one in 2008 in Beijing. The internet was flooded with memes on Dikec, with most users left stunned by his casual style and the fact that he wasn’t using any real shooting gear. He even had both his eyes open while aiming and firing.

One picture of Dikec, who took up the sport of shooting in 2001, received over 30 million views on X (formerly Twitter). One post read - ‘In Olympic shooting, they use equipment like: > A lens to avoid blur > A lens for better precision > ear protectors for noise Then a Turkish guy (Dikeç) came and won a silver medal with just a pair of GLASSES’.

The 5 feet 11-inch tall Dikec’s partner in crime at Paris was Savval Ilayda Tarhan. Interestingly, while Dikec’s style is to keep it simple, Tarhan was wearing large ear defenders and a visor during the Mixed Team event.

Dikec is a five-time World Championship medallist, which includes two golds in the 25m centre fire pistol event. The 51-year-old, who is a retired non-commissioned officer of the Turkish Gendarmerie also has 10 European Championship medals, including five golds.

And now he has cemented his legacy in the Olympic history books, not just as a medallist, but also as one the most popular figures of the 2024 Paris edition.

Talk about getting it bang on right!

If he’s back for the 2028 edition in Los Angeles, at the age of 55, suffice to say Dikec will be one of the most talked about athletes.

Zhiying Zeng (Chilean Table Tennis player of Chinese origin)

In today’s frenetic world where only those who end up at the very summit of their fields are regularly praised, followed, and adored, what most of us following the Olympics tend to forget is that being an Olympian is in itself a huge achievement. The best of the best from each country are picked to represent their national flag and being an athlete who has been permitted to enter the Olympic village is a huge feat, regardless of whether there’s a medal at the end of it all or not.

That’s the fire, the passion that has burnt since the 1970s inside Zhiying Zeng, a Chilean table tennis player of Chinese origin. A passion that saw her make it to the Paris Olympics this time, where she made her Games debut at the ripe old age of 58!

Zeng was born in Guangzhou in 1966. Her mother was a table tennis coach and her job saw the family receive accommodation next to a sports complex in Guangzhou. Thanks to her mother’s influence Zeng picked up a paddle at a very early age. She went on to turn professional at the age of 12.

Zhiying Zeng made her parents’ dream come true at the age of 58. Reuters

It’s not easy being a TT player in China, hands down the most successful table tennis nation ever. Consider this - from the time table tennis was introduced as an Olympic sport, in the 1988 edition in Seoul, China have won a mind-boggling 60 table tennis medals, including 32 gold, 20 silver, and 8 bronze medals. In the nine editions of the Olympic Games from 1988 (when table tennis was first introduced) to 2020, China have been the best-performing nation throughout.

So, when Zeng was called up to the Chinese table tennis team at the age of 16, it was no mean feat. But then came the downturn.

According to a CNN report, the ’two-colour rule’ in 1986 (two years before the 1988 Olympic Games), which meant that paddlers had to use paddles that had two different colours on the two sides of the paddle saw Zeng’s game affected because opponents could now read her game better and she could no longer confuse them by turning the paddle (with black on both sides) continuously in her hand (the two sides of a TT paddle hit the ball differently and produce different effects). She had to eventually leave the Chinese team.

In 1989 she received an invitation to coach school kids in Chile. Zeng packed her bags and left. She stayed on in Chile and made only sporadic comebacks to competitive table tennis. Once in 2003 and then again during the Covid pandemic when she began winning regional tournaments playing mostly against men.

The big crowning glory came in 2023 when she was picked to be part of the Chilean women’s team for the Pan American Games in Santiago. She bagged the bronze in the team event, alongside Daniela Ortega and Paulina Vega.

CNN reported that Chileans gave her the nickname ‘Tia Tania’ or Auntie Tania. According to an AP report, one young fan was quoted as saying that he had gone to the competition just to watch the ’table tennis grandma’ in action. Zeng is not a grandmother, but she very quickly became an iconic figure in Chile.

Cut to Paris 2024 and Zeng’s lifelong dream of becoming an Olympian finally came true. Her 92-year-old father stayed up till 5 am in China to watch his daughter realise her dream, as she qualified for what is the pinnacle of all sporting events.

An emotional Zeng told CNN - “My dad was able to see his daughter qualify for the Olympics….He used to take me to training and to matches when I was a girl and now at 57 (her age when she qualified for the Olympics), I made it. I made it.”

Though she lost in the preliminary rounds in Paris to Lebanon’s Mariana Sahakian, Zeng is one athlete who has headlined the Paris Games for all the right reasons - for showing the world that being an Olympian is what drives all athletes, regardless of eventual glory and that none of us must ever forget just how big an achievement and how cherished a dream Olympic participation in itself truly is.

Stay tuned to this space for more such inspiring and remarkable stories from the Paris Olympics.

Akaash is a former Sports Editor and primetime sports news anchor. He is also a features writer, a VO artist and a stage actor see more