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Reuters

As the conflict between Palestine and Israel is going on, Palestinian-American swimmer Valerie Tarazi finds it deeply significant to represent Palestine at the Paris Olympics.This is Palestine&#x27;s eighth historical participation in the Olympics, with eight athletes competing in six events, including running, boxing, and swimming. It is also the largest participation in the history of Palestine.&quot;Personally, it&#x27;s been a dream of mine to swim at the Olympics since I was very young, so that&#x27;s an accomplishment in itself. But being able to go back to my roots, represent Palestine and then raise the flag, it&#x27;s my honor. It&#x27;s truly the most special feeling in the entire world,&quot; said Tarazi.The 24-year-old swimmer said the Palestinian delegation has received the overwhelming support and this encouragement has fueled their competitive spirit at the Paris Olympics.&quot;We&#x27;ve received an immense amount of support, honestly, throughout, even in the village, from fans, from people of Palestine, from my family. I&#x27;ve received more support than I ever thought. Yes, of course we&#x27;re going to get some hate comments or people on the opposite side of the situation, but we&#x27;ve received so much love and support, and we&#x27;ve used that to fuel our inner fire for competition and everything else. So we&#x27;re grateful for that,&quot; said Tarazi.Reflecting on the harsh realities faced by Palestinians, Tarazi spoke of personal tragedies, including the forced displacement of her grandfather in Gaza and the loss of friends during the recent Israeli attacks in enclave.&quot;We&#x27;re in a situation that pretty much no other country in the world is in. Very few other countries can even relate to what Palestinians are going through. So being able to be here and being the very few Palestinians in the world that the media will listen to is the greatest honor we could ever have. I&#x27;m not here to be a politician, but I am here to spread my stories and my family had to leave Gaza. My grandfather had to leave. Things were really horrible. And on top of that, I mean, I&#x27;ve had so many family members die. I&#x27;ve had teammates die. I was with one of my white teammates in China, and a few days later, I got a phone call that he died in a bombing. So it&#x27;s been horrible on all of us. I mean, it seems like every single day we have to go through getting phone calls of our friends or family who just like, yeah, they passed away. And I mean, even since we&#x27;ve been here, stuff like that has happened and it&#x27;s all the more reason for us to raise the flag,&quot; said Tarazi.The ongoing Israeli attacks have killed at least 39,583 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, health authorities in the besieged enclave said on Sunday. -Report from Reuters

As the conflict between Palestine and Israel is going on, Palestinian-American swimmer Valerie Tarazi finds it deeply significant to represent Palestine at the Paris Olympics.

As the conflict between Palestine and Israel is going on, Palestinian-American swimmer Valerie Tarazi finds it deeply significant to represent Palestine at the Paris Olympics.

Swimmer says important to represent Palestine at Paris 2024

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Swimmer says important to represent Palestine at Paris 2024

Reuters

Published Aug 05, 2024 10:13 PM PHT

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