Pinning Their Hopes on Peace

The gym isn’t luxurious. It has three competition mats, a training table jammed between chairs piled high with bags and coats, and a hint of the universal gym smell of sweat, liniment and adhesive from bandages wound tightly around knees, ankles and wrists.

A few posters adorn the walls and signs admonish visitors not to wear street shoes on the mats.

The U.S. Olympic Training Center’s wrestling practice facility is probably smaller, darker and less remarkable than most high school gyms. But it’s a bit of heaven to the two Iraqi wrestlers and coach who have been training there for the last month, guests of a program organized by the U.S. Olympic Committee, International Olympic Committee, U.S. State Department and USA Wrestling.

The two Greco-Roman wrestlers can practice when they want, refining the techniques of a sport that has deep roots in their homeland. They can get help from successful American wrestlers and coaches, for free. No one will scowl -- or worse -- if they lose a practice match.

“In our country, we are athletes and wrestlers before we become military or before we become politicians or anything else,” said the coach, Jamal Hassan.

But politics have intruded on his life, and those of the athletes he coaches.

Hassan was chosen in 2001 to be part of a group that would represent Iraq at the Arab championships in Syria. It began like other such trips he’d taken, but its end was dramatically different.

Thirty people went. One left, so only 29 returned. And those who went home brought with them a second-place finish, not the championship.

Uday Hussein, president of Iraq’s Olympic committee and the son of dictator Saddam Hussein, was not pleased.

“The whole team were jailed,” Hassan said. “They were hitting us and using electric shock.”

After 35 days, they were released to a life fraught with hardship, where “since the ‘80s until now it’s been war after war,” Hassan said.

Their equipment consisted of a mat in a small building in Baghdad and they worked at whatever jobs they could find in a country under an economic embargo. On April 8, 2003, a day after U.S. and British forces topped Saddam Hussein and Iraqis celebrated by toppling a huge statue of Hussein in downtown Baghdad, the CD store that Hassan ran to help support his wife and five children was destroyed. His house had been damaged too.

Yet, he and his athletes always found time to practice. And because they maintained a semblance of their skill and remained determined to succeed, Hassan and wrestlers Muhammed Mohammed and Ali Salman were invited to the Olympic Training Center.

The IOC had suspended the Iraqi National Olympic Committee on May 17, 2003, because of reports of Uday Hussein’s abuse of athletes and coaches. He was killed last year and the IOC lifted the suspension in February, permitting Iraqi athletes to compete in the Athens Games under their flag. Only a few athletes from wrestling, track and field, swimming, weightlifting and taekwondo are likely to compete, but it is a start.

“This is something that we hoped for,” Hassan said through translator Jiyan Gozeh, an Iraqi Kurd who fled persecution in her homeland and came to the U.S. in 1996. “Any athlete can dream about seeing your flag flying in the Games like that.”

Hassan said Salman and Mohammed were preparing for the Athens Olympics, even though they haven’t yet received invitations from FILA, the international wrestling federation. The three arrived April 3 and will remain through July 15, except for a trip to Kazakhstan to compete in the Asian championships.

They say they are happy here, yet the land of their birth is never far from their thoughts. They regularly surf the Internet to read Iraqi newspapers and watch CNN to follow what’s happening at home. They try to call at least once a day to check on their families, but they’re not always able to get through.

“We still have hope that things will get better, and that American soldiers will return home to their families safely,” Hassan said.

Hassan, 45, is a Sunni Muslim. He speaks no English. Mohammed, 27, ethnically Kurdish and a Sunni Muslim, carries a notepad with him to jot down new words and expand his English vocabulary.

“Some of the words are about sports, and some are things that interest me,” Mohammed said.

Salman, 21, is a Shiite Muslim. He has learned “hello” and “thank you” but little else.

They’ve faced each new challenge with a smile and an open mind.

Said Hassan: “At the beginning, we did have some concerns, psychologically, we were thinking, ‘Should we go? Should we not go?’ But because we had a goal, and we had a purpose, and our purpose was athletic, we made up our minds we should go.... People have been very cooperative, very welcoming, with very friendly faces.”

Mohammed and Salman were not part of the team that was imprisoned by Uday Hussein, but they too have known tough times.

Salman, the older brother to seven sisters, is from Kirkuk, a northern Iraqi city that has been under frequent attack. He competes in the 96-kilogram weight class. Mohammed, compact but powerfully built, competes in the 55-kilogram class. He is married and shares his home with seven others.

In Colorado Springs, Hassan said, “We are really learning a lot and getting a lot of benefit. The trainers here are very good and the wrestlers here are world champions.”

Steve Fraser, the U.S. Greco-Roman head coach, said he wasn’t sure what to expect of the Iraqis but that once they became accustomed to the altitude and improved their fitness, they perked up and have been “hungry” for knowledge.

“They’re very nice, very polite, thankful,” he said.

Communication is a problem, but such barriers are overcome every day with other athletes who visit the Olympic Training Center. Gestures and body language can convey most points.

Fraser acknowledged that the Iraqis’ presence carries a stronger emotional charge than other visitors’ presence because the gym doors can’t shut out the world and the fighting in Iraq.

“But that’s the neat thing about sports, especially wrestling,” he said. “When you’re on the mat, it’s just competition. I think wrestlers and athletes can put the politics aside and they don’t think about that. They’re one-on-one with the guy in front of them and they want to beat him.”

Hassan pointed to the religious and ethnic differences within his delegation as proof sports can bridge gaps. As much as the Iraqis have learned about wrestling techniques during their visit, they have learned an equal amount about human nature.

“It’s like a dream for us,” Hassan said. “Any athlete dreams of coming to a developed country.... We saw the reality of the American people and that they are friendly, nice people.”