http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colum...2-nikfar_N.htm
By Paola Boivin, The (Phoenix) Arizona Republic
He followed his long flight from Iran with a train ride from New York to California. Mohammad Nikfar was 30, alone and scared.
A woman approached him. Why did she keep talking? He frantically shook his head.
I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't speak English.
She drew pictures of a cow and a chicken.
Oh. Oh! She works on the train. She wants to know what I want to eat!
It was 1976. Nikfar had come to the United States to pursue a degree in electrical engineering. He was miserable. After three weeks, he bought a ticket to return. Stick it out, a nephew begged. He did, and within six months he had enrolled at San Jose State and fallen in love with an American woman he met while looking for shoes in a secondhand shop.
He worked 40 hours a week and attended school full time. He graduated with an engineering degree and opened his own contracting company. He married and raised two boys.
He worried. What would become of them and how would their mixed heritage be perceived? It was an era of strained relations between the United State and Iran. In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini had returned from exile and Iranian militants had stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and taken hostages, leading to sanctions and the severing of diplomatic ties.
Nikfar found his Santa Clara, Calif., neighbors warm and supportive. They respected his work ethic and marveled at his two sons, who were blooming into talented athletes.
Although Mohammad is 5-9, the boys were tall like their mother, Diane. They excelled in football and throwing the shot put. The youngest, Amin, was 6-4 and good enough to attract the attention of California's track and field program.
My boys will be OK. They are getting a good education.
Just before Amin graduated from Berkeley in 2004, he received an anonymous e-mail that said he was close to breaking the Iranian national record and had the chance to represent Iran in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing because of his father's heritage.
This was heady stuff. Amin was talented but never the best among his U.S. peers. He finished 21st at the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
He worked hard and competed with Iran's national team. He loved it. His teammates embraced him, often inviting him to their rooms and grilling him with questions like, "Have you ever seen J.Lo in person?"
In 2006, he moved to Flagstaff, Ariz., to train with Northern Arizona track coach Mohamad Saatara, who was accomplished in the hammer throw and shared Amin's Iranian roots. They also shared a desire to get Amin to the Olympics, which required him to reach a qualifying mark.
Mohammad Nikfar watched in wonderment.
Amin, 27, enrolled in graduate classes at NAU and volunteered as a coach. Saatara helped redirect Amin's focus from strength training to technique. Amin had until today to qualify. He started his attempts in January but kept falling short. March passed. April. Finally, on June 26 at a meet in Flagstaff, his throw of 65-4 earned him a trip to the Olympics. He will be Iran's lone representative in the shot put and, he knows, one of the Games' biggest long shots.
Mohammad, 62, "can't even believe it's true." He thinks about how success stories come in a variety of shapes, how kindness can transcend politics, and how a train ride that started in New York has taken him and his family to the mostly unlikely of places: Beijing.
By Paola Boivin, The (Phoenix) Arizona Republic
He followed his long flight from Iran with a train ride from New York to California. Mohammad Nikfar was 30, alone and scared.
A woman approached him. Why did she keep talking? He frantically shook his head.
I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't speak English.
She drew pictures of a cow and a chicken.
Oh. Oh! She works on the train. She wants to know what I want to eat!
It was 1976. Nikfar had come to the United States to pursue a degree in electrical engineering. He was miserable. After three weeks, he bought a ticket to return. Stick it out, a nephew begged. He did, and within six months he had enrolled at San Jose State and fallen in love with an American woman he met while looking for shoes in a secondhand shop.
He worked 40 hours a week and attended school full time. He graduated with an engineering degree and opened his own contracting company. He married and raised two boys.
He worried. What would become of them and how would their mixed heritage be perceived? It was an era of strained relations between the United State and Iran. In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini had returned from exile and Iranian militants had stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and taken hostages, leading to sanctions and the severing of diplomatic ties.
Nikfar found his Santa Clara, Calif., neighbors warm and supportive. They respected his work ethic and marveled at his two sons, who were blooming into talented athletes.
Although Mohammad is 5-9, the boys were tall like their mother, Diane. They excelled in football and throwing the shot put. The youngest, Amin, was 6-4 and good enough to attract the attention of California's track and field program.
My boys will be OK. They are getting a good education.
Just before Amin graduated from Berkeley in 2004, he received an anonymous e-mail that said he was close to breaking the Iranian national record and had the chance to represent Iran in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing because of his father's heritage.
This was heady stuff. Amin was talented but never the best among his U.S. peers. He finished 21st at the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
He worked hard and competed with Iran's national team. He loved it. His teammates embraced him, often inviting him to their rooms and grilling him with questions like, "Have you ever seen J.Lo in person?"
In 2006, he moved to Flagstaff, Ariz., to train with Northern Arizona track coach Mohamad Saatara, who was accomplished in the hammer throw and shared Amin's Iranian roots. They also shared a desire to get Amin to the Olympics, which required him to reach a qualifying mark.
Mohammad Nikfar watched in wonderment.
Amin, 27, enrolled in graduate classes at NAU and volunteered as a coach. Saatara helped redirect Amin's focus from strength training to technique. Amin had until today to qualify. He started his attempts in January but kept falling short. March passed. April. Finally, on June 26 at a meet in Flagstaff, his throw of 65-4 earned him a trip to the Olympics. He will be Iran's lone representative in the shot put and, he knows, one of the Games' biggest long shots.
Mohammad, 62, "can't even believe it's true." He thinks about how success stories come in a variety of shapes, how kindness can transcend politics, and how a train ride that started in New York has taken him and his family to the mostly unlikely of places: Beijing.
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