Global General

Is sport fading in Iraq?

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-15 18:06

BAGHDAD - At a shabby little gymnasium in the center of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, Ali Taklef was watching two amateurs boxing.

The match going on was not that exiting, Taklef's eye sights eluded as if bored.

Taklef, 38, once a ferocious boxer whose fists chilled down his opponents' backs, gained his fame at a very young age.

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His quick steps and precise hit earned him many titles and medals both in Iraq and abroad. In 1989, he took part in the 14th Asian Boxing championships in Beijing and returned home with a gold.

Life has been bittersweet then.

Adulation, fame and of course, injuries came to him in flurries. But everything changed the day he was retired and left jobless.

Taklef was hardly the only fading sport star in the war-ravaged country and he blames the government for lack of support for sports and athletes. To him, the nascent government, reeling from the Iraq war and sectarian feud, committed little resources into sports.

"Sport is forgotten by the new government in Iraq. Those retired champions who participated in international sport occasions to raise the national flag in foreign countries are forgotten, too," he said.

To Taklef, sport, not only boxing, is really getting weak in Iraq, due to lack of support from the government.

"We never heard the government distributed lands or houses to champions," said Taklef.

He recalled of having the chance to meet Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and of speaking to the leader on behalf of all the retired champions.

The former boxing champion requested the premier to treat the athletes like government employees.

"Any employee who spent over 25 years in his post here can get a retirement salary. And we have spent more than 20 years to represent Iraq in foreign lands wearing Iraqi flag on our chests. Why are we treated differently?"

The various national teams, except for soccer team, find it difficult to get sponsorships and funds from government and private enterprises. And their training conditions lag far behind their neighboring countries.

On top of all that, Iraqi athletes face death threats from insurgents that bear hatred and hostility to the government.

Since 2005, over 100 athletes were estimated having been attacked. Some athletes were maimed in explosions and assassinations and were left unattended to and neglected by the government.

Some hope the authorities can invest more into sports so as to galvanize national pride and unity which the country is in bad need of.

Later at Taklef's slum shelter, he displayed the pictures of good old days when he was a young athlete. The burden of life changed a champion to a weary husband and father. However, his passion for boxing never faded away.

Every week he manages to squeeze a day to a boxing club to watch young players' matches.