Lebanese Paralympian Arz Zahreddine will get his second shot at gold this summer in Paris. Competing in the 100m and 200m running events, he's not going to let the threat of war between Israel and his home country, Lebanon, slow him down.
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00:00Every day, Ars Zahradine hits the track in his home city of Beirut.
00:07The 25-year-old is training to represent Lebanon in his second Paralympic Games.
00:12He ranked fifth in the men's 200-meter in Tokyo 2020, and is eyeing top spots in the
00:17men's 100 and 200-meter runs this year in Paris.
00:21I just want to represent Lebanon in the World Championships and the Paralympic Games as
00:27a qualifier, not as a wild-card athlete.
00:31So this took a lot of work for me, but in Tokyo, I was in the top 8 fastest in 200 meters
00:40in my case, T-64, one imputation of leg below knee.
00:47Having already persevered through the loss of his leg in a car accident when he was free,
00:52Ars now contends with the threat of war.
00:56The nearly year-long struggle between neighboring Israel and Hamas in Gaza is threatening to
01:00spill over into Lebanon and turn into a larger regional conflict.
01:04Just days before the start of the Paris Paralympic Games, Israel and Lebanese militant group
01:09Hezbollah exchanged missile strikes, a significant escalation in violence after 10 months of
01:14hostilities, pushing international airlines to suspend flights in and out of the region.
01:20We are afraid every day, me and the coach, if it is possible for them to close the airport
01:25or the port before I travel to the Paralympics.
01:29So what can we do?
01:31But if we continue to live in fear, we will not be able to perform, we will not be able
01:36to do any training.
01:38Relations between Lebanon and Israel are tense in the best of times and devolve into outright
01:43war in the worst.
01:45That last happened in 2006.
01:48It's a grim reality which everyday Beirutis like Ars have endured for years.
01:53So for the moment, while Israeli bombs pound this country's frontiers, Ars pounds the pavement.
01:59There are people, there are generations that are growing up with me.
02:02So I have to always be positive, to show that with one leg or without, on a wheelchair or not,
02:11you have to always look forward.
02:13But you can look back and see where you were and where you are now.
02:19Despite the unstable training grounds, Ars will tell you he's gotten faster.
02:23And perseverance, first through an amputation, then through years of training, and now through
02:29the threat of another war, is fueling his motivation to tackle the challenges of Paris
02:34head on.
02:36Howard Chang and Bryn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.
02:41For more UN videos visit www.un.org