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Basharmal Sultani (born January 28, 1985) is an Afghan Olympic athlete, who competed in boxing in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. [1] He was invited to participate by the International Olympic Committee. He lost his first round bout in the welterweight category to Mohamed Hikal of Egypt on points, 40–12.
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to the north, and Tajikistan and China to the northeast. Occupying 652,864 square kilometers (252,072 sq mi), the country is predominately mountainous with plains in the north and southwest. It is inhabited by 31.4 million people as of 2020, composed mostly of ethnic Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks. Kabul serves as its capital and largest city.
The Hazaras are a Persian-speaking ethnic group native to, and primarily residing in, the mountainous region of Hazarajat, in central Afghanistan. They speak the Hazaragi dialect of Persian which is mutually intelligible with Dari, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.
The Taliban is a Deobandi Islamist religious and political movement and military organization in Afghanistan. Currently one of two entities claiming to be the legitimate government of Afghanistan, alongside the internationally recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Taliban maintain de facto control over the country. The Taliban's ideology has been described as combining an "innovative" form of Sharia Islamic law based on Deobandi fundamentalism and militant Islamism, combined with Pashtun social and cultural norms known as Pashtunwali, as most Taliban are Pashtun tribesmen. The group is internally funded by its activities in the illegal drug trade by producing and trafficking narcotics such as heroin, extortion, and kidnap and ransom. They also seized control of mining operations in the mid 2010s which were illegal under the previous government.
The Soviet–Afghan War was a conflict wherein insurgent groups, as well as smaller Shi'ite and Maoist groups, fought a nine-year guerrilla war against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviet Army throughout the 1980s, mostly in the Afghan countryside. The Mujahideen were variously backed primarily by the United States, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and the United Kingdom; the conflict was a Cold War-era proxy war. Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 Afghans were killed and millions more fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran. Between 6.5%–11.5% of Afghanistan's population is estimated to have perished in the conflict. The war caused grave destruction in Afghanistan, and it has also been cited by scholars as a contributing factor to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, in hindsight leaving a mixed legacy to people in both territories.
Afghanistan sent a delegation to compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, which were held from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the eleventh appearance of the nation in the Summer Olympics and their first since their reinstatement to the International Olympic Committee in 2003 following a four-year ban due to the Taliban government's discrimination against women and their opposition to them playing sports. The delegation consisted of five athletes: sprinters Masoud Azizi and Robina Muqimyar, boxer Basharmal Sultani, judoka Friba Rezayee and wrestler Bashir Ahmad Rahmati. Muqimayar and Rezayee's inclusion in the Afghan delegation marked the first time the country sent a woman athlete to a Summer Olympics. All five failed to progress any further than the preliminary round of their respective sports and Afghanistan's best performance at the Games was by Muqimayar who set a new national women's 100 metre record in her heat.
The 1980 Summer Olympics boycott was one part of a number of actions initiated by the United States to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union, which hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and its allies later boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Afghanistan competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The Central Asian nation returned to the Olympic Games after missing the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona.
The following lists events that happened during 1994 in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has competed in 15 Summer Games. They have never appeared in any Winter Games. The country made its first appearance at the Berlin Games in 1936. It has sent a delegation to 14 of the 19 Summer Games since then. It is organised by the Afghanistan National Olympic Committee, which is currently presided by Hafizullah Wali Rahimi.
Afghanistan sent a team to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The team consisted of three men and one woman. Initially, Mehboba Ahdyar prepared to run the 800 metres and 1500 metres, but left her training camp on June 4 to seek political asylum in Norway. The country was represented by two competitors in athletics, and two in taekwondo. Afghanistan won its first ever Olympic medal at these games, with Rohullah Nikpai taking bronze in men's 58 kg taekwondo.
Rohullah Nikpai is an Afghan taekwondo practitioner and two-time Olympic bronze medalist.
Sport in Afghanistan is managed by the Afghan Sports Federation. Cricket and association football are the two most popular sports in Afghanistan. The traditional and the national sport of Afghanistan is Buzkashi. The Afghan Sports Federation promotes cricket, association football, basketball, volleyball, golf, handball, boxing, taekwondo, weightlifting, bodybuilding, track and field, skating, bowling, snooker, chess, and other sports in the country.
Afghanistan National Olympic Committee was the National Olympic Committee representing Afghanistan. Hafizullah Wali Rahimi is the current president of the committee as of 2018.
Afghanistan is a member of the South Asian Zone of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), and has participated in the Asian Games since their inception in 1951. The Afghanistan National Olympic Committee, established in 1935 and recognised by the International Olympic Committee in 1936, is the National Olympic Committee for Afghanistan.
Taekwondo competitions at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was held from 8 August to 11 August at the ExCeL London. Competition was held in eight weight categories; four for men, and four for women.
The 2020 Summer Paralympics, branded as Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport parasports event governed by the International Paralympic Committee. It was the 16th Summer Paralympic Games and was held in Tokyo, Japan between 24 August and 5 September 2021.
Afghanistan competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012. Six Afghan athletes were selected for the Games, competing in four different sporting events. Rohullah Nikpai, who won Afghanistan's first ever Olympic medal at the 2008 Games, managed to repeat his bronze medal in the men's 68 kg taekwondo event for the second time.
Afghanistan competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. The country's participation at Rio de Janeiro marked its fourth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics and fourteenth in total. Afghanistan had officially made its debut in 1936 and missed five editions since then. Rohullah Nikpai, who had previously won a medal for Afghanistan in taekwondo, did not participate. Afghanistan failed to earn a single Olympic medal in Rio for the first time since 2004.
Afghanistan competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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