{"id":901097,"date":"2026-09-22T08:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T08:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901097\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T08:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T08:52:10","slug":"afghan-cyclist-who-disguised-herself-as-a-man-to-evade-taliban-wins-asian-games-silver-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901097\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan cyclist who disguised herself as a man to evade Taliban wins Asian Games silver | Cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Afghan cyclist who disguised herself as a man to pursue her sporting dreams won an Asian Games silver medal on Tuesday, hoping it inspires other women in a country where Taliban<\/a> authorities have sharply curtailed their freedoms.<\/p>\n

Fariba Hashimi, who is based in Italy, powered home second in the women\u2019s road race near Nagoya in Japan, calling the triumph \u201csomething special\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t explain my feelings now,\u201d said the 23-year-old, before reflecting on how she was attacked with stones and trained disguised as a man when she started out in the sport as a teenager along with sister Yulduz, who is also now a pro cyclist. \u201cI was born inside a country where the women who dream are getting attacked, and I\u2019m really happy that I have fought against that,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope that the next generation will come here and represent their country without any fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Taliban authorities returned to power in 2021<\/a> and have since imposed a series of rules<\/a> limiting women\u2019s access to education and public life, including sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took away our freedom, they took away everything from us,\u201d said Hashimi, who hails from the Faryab province in northern Afghanistan<\/a> and left the country after the Taliban authorities took over. \u201cThis silver medal can show a lot of resilience from Afghan women, and I\u2019m really happy. I\u2019m not alone, I know that behind me millions of women, from many countries, have the same dream and they are standing with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After fleeing Afghanistan with the help of Italian former world champion Alessandra Cappellotto, Hashimi relocated to Italy, where she now lives and trains. She and her sister competed at the Paris Olympics two years ago, and the 2028 Los Angeles Games are now looming into view. \u201cI never want to give up and hopefully we can see [what can happen] again in Los Angeles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hashimi reserved a special thanks for the Japanese team for playing a part in her silver medal. \u201cI\u2019m here without a mechanic, without any preparation. We brought one guy with us from the national federation, and he just drove the car,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were fixing the bike ourselves. I was the mechanic for myself. I was washing the bike myself. Thank you to the Japanese team. They were really, really nice to me, fixed my bike.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Afghan cyclist who disguised herself as a man to pursue her sporting dreams won an Asian Games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-901097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}