Iran defector loses to old friend and former taekwondo teammate at Paris Olympics

One wore a veil, the other fought with her head bare.

Nahid Kiyani Chandeh and Kimia Alizadeh were once friends and roommates as part of the junior Iran taekwondo team. Now an entire world separates them.

They clashed Thursday at the Paris Olympics in the 57-kilogram division and Alizadeh, who defected from Iran, lost in her bid to win a gold medal for her new country, Bulgaria.

Kiyani Chandeh, the current world champion, came out on top of a very tense fight that was settled by a referee decision after the athletes, both 26, finished tied with seven points each in the decisive third round.

Alizadeh had a three-point lead in the decider with six seconds left, but Kiyani Chandeh leveled with a kick to the head and was handed the victory by superiority.

Kiyani Chandeh went on to win the tournament and Alizadeh claimed a bronze medal after going through a repechage process.

Alizadeh was the first Iranian female athlete ever to win an Olympic medal when she claimed bronze in Rio de Janeiro as an 18-year-old.

Her win catapulted her to fame, but she grew frustrated with life in Iran. As she announced she was leaving her country four years ago, she accused Iranian officials of sexism and criticized wearing the mandatory hijab headscarf.

At the time, she described herself as “one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran.”

After heading to Germany, she became a member of the Refugee Olympic Team and came close to earning a bronze medal in Tokyo.

In April, she left the IOC team — created in 2016 to provide opportunities to victims of political persecution and war — when she announced she had received Bulgarian citizenship.

The round-of-16 fight Thursday between the two rivals — who used to be roomates at Iran's national training center during their youth year — was revenge for Kiyani Chandeh, who had lost to Alizadeh in Tokyo.

She belted out her joy and clenched her fists in delight after her win and celebrated with her coach as Alizadeh took a knee. The rivals didn’t even glance at each other as they exited the octagonal combat zone, then declined to speak to reporters.

Asked whether the bout was politically charged, the president of the Iranian taekwondo federation said it was just a “very hard match.”

“This is a sport, it's not politics,” he said. “She is in the Bulgaria team now, we respect everybody. Their relationship is not bad.”

More Paris Olympics news: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh, left, reacts at the end of a women's 57kg Taekwondo match against Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi competes with Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh in a women's 57kg Taekwondo match during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi competes with Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh in a women's 57kg Taekwondo match during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi competes with Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh in a women's 57kg Taekwondo match during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi competes with Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh in a women's 57kg Taekwondo match during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi competes with Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh in a women's 57kg Taekwondo match during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi competes with Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh in a women's 57kg Taekwondo match during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi reacts at the end of a women's 57kg Taekwondo match against Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh reacts at the end of a women's 57kg Taekwondo match against Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh, right, reacts at the end of a women's 57kg Taekwondo match against Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Grand Palais, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

PANAMA CITY (AP) — They crossed oceans to get to the U.S., fleeing conflict, religious persecution, poverty and government crackdowns in countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Cameroon, China, Pakistan and Iran.

After flying to Central and South America, they bused through countries where they didn’t speak the language and walked through unfamiliar jungle to get to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Within days, they were detained and put on military aircraft that flew nearly 300 of them to Panama as U.S. President Donald Trump sought to accelerate deportations to more complicated destinations.

Panama was supposed to be a stopover. But for those unwilling to return home — mostly out of well-founded fear — Panama sent them to a guarded camp without access to lawyers in the same Darién jungle many had crossed months earlier on their way north.

Over the past week, under legal pressure, the Panamanian government dropped them off at a bus station in the capital with 30 days to figure out where they will go next.

“It feels like the whole world is crushing down on me. It’s like everything is stopping,” said Isha Len, a 29-year-old from Cameroon. “I risked everything, my life, everything, crossing the Darién Gap, just to be sent back.”

Here are the stories that some of the deportees told The Associated Press:

After conflict broke out in her small town, Len crossed Cameroon by car and minibus, then a fisherman friend carried her four hours by boat to Nigeria.

Len, a schoolteacher, flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she said authorities detained her for a month in the airport. From there, she wound north through South America by bus, following other migrants until they reached the Darién Gap.

She walked days through the dangerous jungle that divides Colombia and Panama before boarding buses that carried her through Central America. After being kidnapped for days by a gang in Guatemala, she crossed into southern Mexico, where she took a boat along the Pacific coast to evade authorities. After she landed, she rode eight hours to Mexico City, continuing on by bus and car to Tijuana.

She crossed the U.S. border and presented herself to American authorities.

Artemis Ghasemzadeh left her country in January, fleeing after converting from Islam to Christianity – something that could cost Ghasemzadeh her life in Iran. She flew to Dubai, where she stayed two weeks and then took a flight to South Korea.

From there she flew to Mexico City, staying there for three weeks before going to Tijuana. She crossed the U.S. border on Feb. 9, and was detained for five days, including her birthday.

“For changing your religion, your punishment is death," she said. “We don’t know what will happen."

Wang Qiu said he left home after he was imprisoned for three years for speaking out about democracy and human rights issues.

He flew from Beijing to Cuba, then to the small South American country of Suriname. From there, he traveled by land: through Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, before trekking through the Darién Gap.

He moved up through Central America and Mexico before being detained after crossing into the U.S. in San Diego.

Qamar Abdi, left for the U.S. on Aug. 17, due to warfare between the government and militants of al-Shabab, which the U.S. recognizes as a terrorist group.

She hopped from buses to shared cars for nearly a month until she reached South Africa. From there, she flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and spent the next six months riding buses north.

When she arrived at the northern tip of Colombia, she traveled six days through the Darién Gap, landing in Panama on New Year's Day.

She took buses to the southern Mexican border city of Tapachula, where she was temporarily kidnapped and robbed by a gang. To avoid immigration authorities, she traveled hours packed on a boat with other migrants along Mexico's Pacific coast, then took a bus to Mexico City. She spent two weeks there before driving to Tijuana, where she crossed into the U.S.

Ebrahim Ghezelgechi fled Iran with his wife, Sahar; 10-year-old daughter, Aylin; and 11-year-old son, Sam, on Nov. 21.

The family flew to Brazil, then to Panama and finally Nicaragua. From there, they took buses north to Guatemala, then crossed into southern Mexico by boat. They rode on top of trains and in buses and vans to get to Tijuana.

After Mexico authorities sent them back to the southern part of the country, they took a plane to the resort area of Los Cabos. There, they were detained, had their passports taken and were sent back south again.

They tried getting north a number of times, punted back by Mexican authorities, before eventually paying a driver to take them to Tijuana.

After crossing into the U.S., they were detained in San Diego for a week.

Samin Haider left for Dubai in 2023 after violence surged in his region of Parachinar, which borders Afghanistan and has been plagued for decades by conflicts between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim communities.

Haider was there for 1 1/2 years before the United Arab Emirates canceled visas for Pakistanis.

Haider then flew to Mexico and traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border with the hopes of seeking asylum.

Now deported to Panama, he still hopes to reach the U.S.

Elham Ghaedi left on Oct. 21, flying to Brazil and then to Venezuela's capital Caracas.

She traveled to Colombia, where took a bus north and then walked five days through the Darién Gap.

She stayed 15 days in a migrant camp in southern Panama before taking a bus through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and to Mexico's southern border. There, migration authorities detained her for six days.

She traveled north to Mexico City, where she spent a month, before boarding a flight to Tijuana. U.S. authorities detained her when she crossed to San Diego.

Omagh fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the takeover of the Taliban because he identified as an atheist and was part of an ethnic minority, something that could put his life in danger.

He first went to Pakistan, where he got a visa for six months, and struggled to get a new one due to his Afghani passport.

He then went to Iran and worked there for 1 1/2 years. But the country wouldn’t accept him as a refugee.

He managed to get a visa to Brazil, which offered a number of Afghan people refuge after the rise of the Taliban, and flew to Sao Paulo in 2024.

Hoping to reunite with friends and family in the U.S., Omagh paid smugglers to move him north through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. He trekked through the Darién Gap, then took buses north through Central America to southern Mexico.

Mexican authorities detained him and dropped him back in southern Mexico a few times before he managed to take a flight to Mexico City and later to the U.S., where he was detained.

“After so much time, I’ve lost hope,” he said.

Afghan migrant Hayatullah Omagh poses for a portrait in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Elham Ghaedi, a migrant from Iran, poses for a portrait in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Samin Haider, left, a migrant from Pakistan, and his cousin Saqlain Sayed, pose for a portrait in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Ebrahim Ghezelgechi, right, a migrant from Iran, poses for a portrait with his wife Sahar Bideman and their children Sam and Aylin in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after they were deported from the U.S., detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Qamar Abdi and Filsan Aliin, migrants from Somalia, pose for a portrait at the hotel where they are staying in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Wang Qiu, a migrant from China, poses for a portrait in Panama City, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a migrant from Iran, poses for a portrait in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Isha Len, a migrant of Cameroon, poses for a photo in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the U.S., detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Migrants who were held in a Panamanian immigration shelter after being deported from the U.S. embraced upon arriving in Panama City on Saturday, March 8, 2025, after authorities gave them 30 days to leave the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)