Kuwait: Age has become a mere figure in the 32nd Olympic Games being played in Tokyo. A 58-year-old Kuwaiti athlete who is a seven-time Olympian won a bronze medal in the men’s skeet event on Monday.
It was Abdullah Al-Rashidi’s second Olympic medal but first for his country.
In 2016 at the Rio Olympics, Al-Rashidi competed as an individual Olympic athlete after Kuwait was banned by the International Olympic Committee.
On winning the bronze medal for Kuwait, he said he was also happy to win a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics. “I am very happy today because I have won this medal in this Olympics under the flag of Kuwait,” Al-Rashidi told media.
“I am 58 years old. I am the oldest shooter and the bronze medal is worth more than gold for me. I am very happy for this medal, but I hope for a gold medal at the next Olympics,” he told the Olympic information service at the Asaka shooting range.
Al-Rashidi, who started his Olympic journey at Atlanta 1996, shot 46 in the six-man finals to earn the bronze.
After running 5 Olympic games empty-handed, the 3-time world champion finished on the podium in Rio. However, in his seventh games stint, the Kuwaiti shooter managed to stand on the podium while representing his country.
India’s Olympic medal-winning rifle shooter Gagan Narang took to Twitter and wrote, “Al-Rashidi winning skeet bronze at 57 years of age .. Take a Bow… Age is just a number.”
22-year-old bags bronze medal for Turkey at Tokyo 2020
A 22-year-old taekwondo champ, Hakan Reçber on July 25 brought Turkey its first medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Hakan has been involved in taekwondo since his childhood and had to give up his passion when he was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder called transverse myelitis, an inflammation of both sides of part of the spinal cord.
“I was 15. One day, I woke up and did not feel my legs. I could not walk when I was being taken to a doctor,” Reçber told media in an interview in 2016.
“I got back to life with taekwondo training. While I was getting treatment, I worked hard training two to three times a day to get well,” he said.
True to his promise to return to the competition courts, he took home his first gold in 2016 at the World Championships in Canada. He won a silver medal at the 2018 European Junior Championships and a gold medal at the European Championships this year.
“I am proud and happy that I won an Olympic medal for my country. We have done our best, got the best,” Reçber said after the ceremony in Tokyo.
“I wanted too much, and I got it. I did my best and won against the disease. Then I worked hard and achieved success in sports,” Reçber stressed, adding that he would work hard for the better.
With agency inputs