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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.