Zahra Nemati from Iran is the reigning Paralympic and World Archery Para Champion. She was an individual gold medallist in the W1/W2 category at London 2012, and won the world championship in the same category in Bangkok just one year later. She’s also the reigning Asian Para Games champion.
After two stages of the 2015 Archery World Cup, she found herself in a solid 15th place – shooting in an able-bodied and open event.
Wroclaw is a big opportunity for Zahra: “I’m feeling very positive indeed. For me, every tournament is about experience. What happens will happen. But it’s all about the experience.”
Iran was one of the few countries with a near full-size, full-strength squad for Poland, and likely to figure in the weekend’s medal matches. Nemati anchors the recurve women’s team. “We will do our absolute best out here. I know we work a lot harder than many other teams, and I just hope the result will reflect that,” she said.
After some strong individual results at this year’s World Cup stages, she felt good heading into Copenhagen, but - like many other archers - was undone by the apocalyptic Danish weather and lost her first head-to-head match against Ksenia Perova of Russia.
“I thought I would have a better result,” Nemati admitted. “But the weather was really so bad. Rain and wind together. It’s difficult when you are stuck out there.”
Nemati was once a black-belt taekwondo athlete before a car accident in 2004 caused the spinal injury that ended that career. Two years later, she took up archery. Just a week after Wroclaw, she’s set to compete as a strong favourite to retain her world para title in Donaueschingen.
“It’s easier at the para worlds than the World Archery Championships. It’s not the competition as much as the size of the field. There’s less people to beat,” she explained.
“As an archer, my strongest part of me is the mental game. I try to summon up every part of my strength towards winning. I don’t really believe in luck. I believe in making my own luck!”
Nemati, who was appointed a United Nations Ambassador for her contribution to empowering women in sport and was the first Iranian athlete to win gold at a Games, is a young woman with drive.
“If I have a purpose about what I do, it’s this: A message to all the disabled people in the world to never give up on what you are doing because of your disability. Everything is possible. “
