Speeding along a road in the foothills of the Swiss Alps, Fariba Hashimi rises out of the saddle of her £15,000 bike and works the pedals even harder to close the gap between her and her sister, Yulduz, a few metres up ahead.
Training rides like this are the last steps on a journey that began with the two siblings from rural Afghanistan racing in disguise on borrowed bikes, before having to escape when the Taliban came to power.
Now they're on their way to the Olympic Games in Paris. And, despite a Taliban ruling banning women from sport, they will compete under their country's flag.
Uphill challenge
In a world where many elite athletes take up sport almost as soon as they can walk, Fariba, 21, and Yulduz, 24, came late to cycling. They grew up in Faryab, one of the most remote and conservative provinces in Afghanistan, where it was practically unheard of to see women on bicycles.
Fariba was 14 and Yulduz 17 when they saw an advert for a local cycle race and decided to take part. There were two problems; they didn’t have a bike and they didn’t know how to ride.
The sisters borrowed a neighbour's bike one afternoon. After a few hours, they felt they had got the hang of it. Their next challenge was to avoid their family finding out what they were doing because of the stigma around women taking part in sport in conservative areas of Afghanistan.
The sisters used false names and covered themselves up, wearing big baggy clothing, large headscarves and sunglasses so people didn't recognise them. Race day dawned, and incredibly the sisters came first and second.
“It felt amazing,” says Fariba. “I felt like a bird who could fly.” They kept on entering races and kept on winning until their parents eventually found out when they saw pictures of them in the local media.
“They were upset at first. They asked me to stop cycling,” Fariba says. “But I didn't give up. I secretly continued,” she smiles. It didn’t come without dangers – people tried to hit them with cars or rickshaws as they rode or threw stones at them as they cycled past.
“People were abusive. All I wanted to do was win races,” says Yulduz. And the situation was about to get worse.
Fleeing their home
In 2021, four years after the sisters started riding, the Taliban retook control of the country and clamped down on women’s rights, restricting their access to education and limiting how they could travel. They also banned women from taking part in sport.
Yulduz and Fariba had dreamed of one day competing in the Olympics. Now they knew if they wanted to race at all they had to leave Afghanistan.
Using contacts in the cycling community they managed to secure seats on an Italian evacuation flight, along with three teammates. Once in Italy, the women joined a cycling team and got proper coaching for the first time.
“Back in Afghanistan, we didn’t have professional training,” says Yulduz. “All we used to do was take our bikes and ride.” But leaving their homeland and family was not easy.
“The biggest thing for me is to be away from my mother,” says Fariba. “I never thought that because of cycling I would be separated from my brothers and sisters.”
“I’ve sacrificed a lot.” The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan also threw into doubt whether the country would even be allowed to compete at the Olympics. National Olympic Committees are supposed to select athletes for the Games without any government interference.
As the Taliban’s ban on women playing sport breaks this rule, by preventing women being chosen for Afghanistan’s team, it led to calls for the country to be banned from the Olympics – as it had been when the militant group was last in power.
But the International Olympic Committee wanted to find a way to allow Afghan women to compete at the Games. Behind the scenes talks took place between the heads of Afghan sporting bodies, including some now living in exile, about putting together a special team to represent the country in Paris.
Heading to Paris
As time ticked by, and Paris 2024 got ever closer, it looked as if no Afghan athletes would be at the Games.
Then, in June, International Olympic Committee announced that it had arranged for a special gender-equal team representing Afghanistan to go the Paris Olympics. It would be made up of three women and three men. And both the sisters are among them.
“This was a big surprise for both of us,” says Fariba.
“We always dreamt of taking part in the Olympic Games, this is our dream come true,” Yulduz adds.
“Despite all the rights that were taken from us we can show that we can achieve great success, we will be able to represent 20 million Afghan women.”
The IOC say no Taliban officials will be allowed to attend Paris 2024.
Final preparations
The sisters are preparing for the Olympic road race event while riding for a development team run and funded by the UCI and based at the World Cycling Centre, an ultra-modern facility in the Swiss town of Aigle.
The elite facilities are a world away from the dusty roads in Afghanistan where Yulduz and Fariba first taught themselves to cycle.
But their spirit remains the same.
“We are each other’s strength – I support her and she supports me,” says Yulduz.
“Our achievement belongs to Afghanistan,” adds Fariba. “This belongs to Afghanistan women. I am going to the Olympics because of them.”
— CutC by bbc.com
