Syrian judoka Muna Dahouk's message to refugees: ‘Don’t give up’

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00:00Among them, 37 men and women competing as part of the Olympic refugee team.

00:05They can no longer compete for their countries of origin

00:08and cannot yet compete for their adopted homes.

00:11Judoka Muna Dahuk is one of them.

00:14She participated in the under 57 kilogram category as a member of the mixed judo team.

00:20She joins us now on Skype.

00:22Muna, thank you for being with us.

00:25Hello, thank you for having me this evening.

00:28This was your second Olympic Games after Tokyo, wasn't it?

00:31What was it like?

00:33It's like a great to be like as a woman two times

00:38and to represent refugees around the world, of course,

00:41that create something for us.

00:44And it's mean to me a lot, especially like this experience.

00:49It's an unbearable experience for us.

00:53And you just mentioned, how do you feel this time

00:57that the refugee team was received in general here in Paris?

01:03Like it was a great feeling to be there with other champions

01:09or they came over the world to compete in this Olympic.

01:13And especially us, like we were there to represent

01:19more than 120 million displaced people around the world

01:23to reach their voices, to show the world about their sufferers

01:26and what the refugees, how they have like these hard conditions.

01:31They live with it.

01:34Do you think you were at a disadvantage perhaps

01:36in terms of how you could compete?

01:41I'm sorry?

01:42Do you think because being as part of the refugee team,

01:46you were somehow at a disadvantage in terms of the amount of training

01:50that you received prior to the Olympic Games and so forth?

01:54Yes, of course.

01:55Like you can say like I feel a little bit bad about

02:00like how was my performance this Olympic

02:03because I wanted to do more than this.

02:06But you know, like because our hard conditions

02:09before we got in our lives, we couldn't do like the perfect

02:15to show like how we are as athletes.

02:19And tell us about yourself.

02:21You started judo in Damascus at the age of six

02:23under the guidance of your father

02:25who sadly passed away in Syria nine years ago.

02:29Tell us more about your journey.

02:32I started judo when I was six years old because of my father.

02:36So you can say we grew up with judo.

02:38And my first steps was in the mat.

02:42And I continued doing judo till 15 years old.

02:45And then I had to stop for my study for one year or one half.

02:50And then when I decided to go back to do my training again,

02:53the war was starting and our club like completely destroyed.

03:00So in this case, like I had to stop when the war started.

03:04How long did it take for you to get back into shape and start judo again?

03:1010 years. I had to stop my training 10 years.

03:13I had to stop my training 10 years.

03:15So when I came to another land in 2019, I came back to do judo again.

03:21And what is the message that you want to deliver to people in Syria

03:25and to those in your current home, which is the Netherlands?

03:29My message to them, please don't give up because like we are fighters.

03:34We are warriors.

03:35I know that like we had bad conditions and circumstances.

03:39We got a report on our life, but that does not make us stop.

03:43And we should fight for our rights, for our dreams, for our families.

03:48In that respect, how important do you think it is for the Olympics to have a refugee team?

03:56The programme was perfect to show and show the light about the refugees around the world.

04:02To show you how they are athletes, how they are like,

04:05they couldn't do their sports because of the war.

04:08And now this programme, it's like it gave us a big opportunity to do our sports.

04:14Because like now we cannot visit our countries because of the wars or other conditions.

04:22But now, because of this project, now we are there to do our sports.

04:30And you yourself downgraded your category from under 63 kilograms at the Tokyo Games

04:35to 57 kilograms in Paris.

04:38Was it a difficult transition? What was the strategy here?

04:41Actually, it was a difficult transition to lose weight.

04:44Like I had to lose six kilos.

04:48And yeah, but for me, I did it.

04:51And then I used on it, like, of course, every competition,

04:55I had to lose like three or four kilos.

04:58And that's normal for judo athletes.

05:00All athletes, they have to lose weight all the time.

05:02And are you hoping to compete in the next Olympics?

05:09I'm not sure, actually, for this.

05:11Because, you know, like I lived here in the Netherlands five years ago

05:14and I didn't do anything besides judo.

05:16I just, I was focusing on judo and spent all my time in judo.

05:20So now what I want to do besides judo, I want to do something else besides judo.

05:25Like I want to study, I want to do other plans.

05:28Well, Mouna Dahouk, thank you very much for joining us

05:31and well done to you in the Olympics.

05:34Thank you. Thank you for having me.

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