Afghan Athletes Train for Olympics

Thursday, February 14, 2002 2:59 AM EST

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- For years, Sayyid Masool and other Afghan Olympic hopefuls trained in secret, away from the prying eyes of Taliban police who often closed the wrestling school where they exercised during prayer times and insisted that the athletes wear beards and long pants.

With the Taliban gone, athletes, even women, can now train freely. Afghanistan is asking the International Olympic Committee to lift its ban against the country and Masool is hopeful that after eight years of training, he can finally compete internationally.

``I want to be a wrestler for my country,'' said Masool, 23, a short man with dark red hair and a flat nose.

The IOC suspended Afghanistan in 1999, in part because the Taliban prohibited women from competing. The Taliban discouraged many sports and police frequently came to the Martyr Mohammed Arif wrestling club, where Masool trained, and demanded the athletes join public prayer services.

``We had lots of difficulties during the Taliban,'' said Habibshah Iqbal Paryani, the head of the wrestling club. ``They insisted that we have beards and every time they came here they said it was prayer time and they closed the club.''

The Taliban also demanded that the athletes train in baggy sweat pants.

``It was illegal to show your knees,'' Paryani said.

With Afghanistan barred from international competition and the Taliban restrictions on training, enrollment at the wrestling club plummeted from a high of 250 before the Taliban took over to just 50 students last year.

``We trained for our health,'' said Paryani. ``Nothing else.''

When the wrestlers wanted to practice in jerseys used in international competition, which expose the arms and lower legs, they would post a guard at the gym door who would warn them when police approached.

``When the Vice and Virtue Police came by we would stop exercising and sit silently in the room so they would think nobody was there,'' Masool said. ``When they left, we started exercising again.''

Since the defeat of the Taliban last year, enrollment at the wrestling school, one of four in Kabul, has tripled to 150 and Paryani says six of his students may be ready to complete in 2004.

``Inshallah (God willing), we will go,'' said Paryani who competed in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

Afghanistan hopes to have the Olympic ban lifted soon and is looking to send athletes to compete in wrestling, boxing, and track and field at the 2004 Olympics, said Mohammed Anwar Jekdalek, head of Afghanistan's Olympic committee. He also hopes some of the athletes will be women.

But the country still faces many hurdles. Despite the huge changes since the fall of Taliban, the nation remains isolated in many ways. Many Afghans still don't have access to independent news; Masool, for example, did not know that the Winter Olympics were now taking place in Salt Lake City.

Afghanistan is struggling to rebuild and the deprivation facing the country is clear at the Martyr Mohammed Arif wrestling club.

The whitewashed walls of the one-room club are gray with grime. Several of the windows lining one wall are either missing or broken and athletes change at the side of the wrestling mats because there is no changing room. Some cannot afford the $1.10 monthly fee and are allowed to work out for free. Frequent power outages disrupt the training.

A picture of Mohammed Arif, a young, round-faced man with a mustache, hangs on one wall. The club is named after Arif, a wrestler who was killed in a rocket attack when Afghan factions were fighting for control of Kabul.