PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS - Shooting - 10m Air Rifle Women's Qualification - Chateauroux Shooting Centre, Dols, France - July 28, 2024. Luna Solomon of Refugee Olympic Team in action. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
CHATEAUROUX, France (Reuters) - From a 21-year-old fleeing war-torn Eritrea to competing in her second Olympics in Paris, Luna Solomon has come a long way on a journey that included a 10-day trek through a desert and a perilous boat ride across the Mediterranean Sea.
The 30-year-old could not make the final of the 10-metre air rifle event but her mere presence at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre as part of the International Olympic Committee's refugee team is a testimony to her iron will.
"In shooting it is not easy, but it is a mentality," said Solomon, who is part of a group that represents displaced people around the world.
"If you are not patient or calm, you don't manage to succeed or hit your best scores. Patience is key for me."
Hailing from a nation notorious for its poor human rights record, Solomon was one of nine siblings and fled her home in December 2014 with some neighbours but without a passport.
She travelled across the Libyan desert, sailed the Mediterranean Sea into Italy and entered Switzerland in her second attempt.
"There was not much to eat in the desert, but thank god, I stayed alive ... it was very strenuous," she recalled.
It took her three years to get official refugee status in Switzerland before she met Italy's three-times Olympic champion Niccolo Campriani, whose offer to try rifle shooting initially puzzled her.
"It was really difficult for me to understand," she said.
"In my country shooting was about killing people and military service. Why did it exist for sport? But happily, here it exists in a sporting sense to compete and win medals."
Solomon got better by competing in weekly mini-tournaments with fellow refugees, before getting serious about it.
"It was great. Niccolo was like a brother, almost family for me. Thanks to him, I was loving sport."
She made her Olympic debut in Tokyo as part of the IOC refugee team and is overwhelmed by the love she has received from top shooters.
"They approach me and say, 'There is nothing different between us, you have to stay positive and strong'."
Campriani was modest about the role he played.
"These are drops in the ocean, but you have a chance to make an impact in other people's lives, that's absolutely something very deep and dear to me," the Italian told Reuters.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in Chateauroux; editing by Ken Ferris)
