In 2021, in Konya, Turkey, at the fifth edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games, Farzaneh Fasihi’s heart raced as she bent into position at the start line, still feeling the lingering effects of a COVID-19 infection.
Her chest was tight, but she was determined to compete.
The starter’s gun went off, and she lunged forward as swiftly as she could, her legs churning faster than ever before. When she crossed the finish line, she collapsed—not from exhaustion, but from the overwhelming emotion of breaking her own 100-metre sprint record, clocking a lightning-fast time of 11.12 seconds to win the silver medal.
“On the night before a race, memories of my life gush through my mind. All the hardships I’ve endured and all my successes pass before my eyes like a film reel,” Fasihi told Al Jazeera in a Zoom interview from Belgrade, Serbia.
She was at a training camp ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics, where Iran’s fastest female runner of all time would compete in her favorite event, the 100-metre sprint.
Fasihi is no stranger to challenges, but a strong support system in her personal life has seen her through it all.
Born in 1993 in Isfahan, Iran, Fasihi, 31, hails from an athletic family. Her father was a volleyball player, and her brother a swimming and diving champion.
“Before I got married, my father attended all my training sessions,” she recalls. “My mother also attended all my competitions. Without their support, I could not have succeeded.”
From age five to twelve, Fasihi did gymnastics. Her first foray into competitive sprinting was more by chance than design.
“In middle school, my gym teacher forced me to participate in a running competition. I didn’t want to do it,” Fasihi remembers. That day, she broke the Isfahan provincial record, igniting her passion for track and field.
In 2016, she made her international debut. Her team performed well above expectations, winning the silver medal in the 4×400 metre relay at the Asia Indoor Athletics Championship in Doha, Qatar.
But her standout performance did not catapult her sprinting career to new heights. With little support from the Iranian track and field federation, she left it all behind and became a personal fitness trainer.
