https://www.rio2016.com/en/paralympi...title-rio-2016
The first woman in Iran's history to win Olympic or Paralympic gold defended her archery title on Thursday (15 September) night in the individual recurve at the Sambódromo.
In the women's open ranking round, archer Zahra Nemati defeated China’s silver-medallist Chunyan Wu and Poland’s Milena Olszewska who took bronze.
“There was just a feeling that I had that I knew I was going to win today,” Nemati said. “That’s why I was very calm and relaxed. I just knew I could do it."
This wasn't Nemati's first competition at Rio 2016. The 31-year-old paraplegic and Olympic flag-bearer for Iran also qualified for the Olympic Games and represented her country among able-bodied athletes.
With Iran's Paralympic mixed team, she also won silver in the recurve open. She is the London 2012 champion in the individual recurve, which she won to give Iran its first female Olympic or Paralympic gold medallist.
Nemati, who was the recipient of the 2013 Spirit of Sport award and is a United Nations ambassador for her role in empowering women through sport, praised the host nation and the warm embrace she felt here.
“The people of Brazil have been very kind to me during the Olympics and the Paralympics," she said. "They have been really nice and special the way they treated me. All I’ve been trying to do is use this energy I’ve been getting from them to put it in my sport."
Fittingly, the archery competition is at Rio de Janeiro's celebrated Sambódromo, a place of famous exhuberance that hosts annual carneval samba competition and festivities.
"The energy from the people around me, the spectators, the people who wanted me to win – all this energy affected me and that was what helped me," she said. "I’m so tired and all this work from the past two, three months has been weighing heavily on my shoulders."
The first woman in Iran's history to win Olympic or Paralympic gold defended her archery title on Thursday (15 September) night in the individual recurve at the Sambódromo.
In the women's open ranking round, archer Zahra Nemati defeated China’s silver-medallist Chunyan Wu and Poland’s Milena Olszewska who took bronze.
“There was just a feeling that I had that I knew I was going to win today,” Nemati said. “That’s why I was very calm and relaxed. I just knew I could do it."
This wasn't Nemati's first competition at Rio 2016. The 31-year-old paraplegic and Olympic flag-bearer for Iran also qualified for the Olympic Games and represented her country among able-bodied athletes.
With Iran's Paralympic mixed team, she also won silver in the recurve open. She is the London 2012 champion in the individual recurve, which she won to give Iran its first female Olympic or Paralympic gold medallist.
Nemati, who was the recipient of the 2013 Spirit of Sport award and is a United Nations ambassador for her role in empowering women through sport, praised the host nation and the warm embrace she felt here.
“The people of Brazil have been very kind to me during the Olympics and the Paralympics," she said. "They have been really nice and special the way they treated me. All I’ve been trying to do is use this energy I’ve been getting from them to put it in my sport."
Fittingly, the archery competition is at Rio de Janeiro's celebrated Sambódromo, a place of famous exhuberance that hosts annual carneval samba competition and festivities.
"The energy from the people around me, the spectators, the people who wanted me to win – all this energy affected me and that was what helped me," she said. "I’m so tired and all this work from the past two, three months has been weighing heavily on my shoulders."