PARIS (Reuters) - Olympic cyclist Amir Ansari, who was born as a refugee in Iran and then survived a harrowing journey out of Afghanistan, could always find solace on his bike.
The 24-year-old, who will race for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in Paris, grew up cycling through the streets of Kabul. What started as a cheap means of transportation grew into a passion after he joined a local cycling group.
"Cycling was cheap and easy and free," Ansari said ahead of Saturday's men's time trial. "It was a safe place for me. Nobody could stop me cycling, nobody could stop me racing."
Ansari lived in Iran until the age of 10 but as a Hazara, an ethnic group primarily found in Afghanistan, he never felt welcome, and life did not improve after he and his family returned to Afghanistan in 2009.
"When we travelled back to Afghanistan ... they said to us Hazara people that we didn't belong there," he said.
With the situation for Hazaras in Afghanistan deteriorating, Ansari's family decided he needed to leave and so the 16-year-old fled in a car with 15 other people in 2015.
Ansari was passed from one people smuggler to another on a journey that took him by boat, bus, train and on foot through Iran, Turkey and Greece before he finally settled in Sweden.
"We were so lucky because a lot of people died in that place; police shootings and car crashes," he said.
He struggled with depression in Sweden before joining the Stockholm Racing Club. A team doctor gave him an old mountain bike to ride.
"I remember this old aluminium, heavy bike going faster than everyone and everyone was amazed by this tiny guy," Ansari said.
But he suffered "hard, hard depression" after his application to settle full-time in Sweden was rejected.
"I was thinking about suicide because I knew if they sent me back I was going to die anyway," Ansari said.
The club stepped up again, finding him a cycling family to live with and registering him in high school. He was finally granted Swedish residency in 2022.
Ansari's ambition in Paris, he said, is to "represent 120 million refugees around the world and think about those who have lost their life on the way," he said. "I was one of those lucky ones who made it all the way."
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Ken Ferris)
