National Committee for the Asian Games said taekwondoka Kimia Alizadeh will carry the national flag at the opening ceremony of Jakarta Asian Games on August 18.
After a meeting held between Sports and Youth Minister Masoud Soltanifar and committee members on Saturday, Alizadeh was selected from among three candidates, the other two being the 2012 Olympic gold winner discus thrower Ehsan Haddadi and shooter Elaheh Ahmadi.
All three athletes have had outstanding performances in Iran’s recent sports history. Alizadeh won the first ever medal in the history of Olympian Iranian women in 2016 Rio Olympics as she grabbed the bronze. Record holder for Iran and Asia in discus throw, Haddadi was the first to win a medal in athletics for the nation. Then 19, Haddadi made history when he became the first Iranian to win an athletics world title of any kind when he collected world junior gold with 62m in Grosseto, Italy, in 2004.
Ahmadi won the first ever gold medal in the history of women shooting sports. She is the most decorated Iranian woman shooter and the first to take the top spot in the world ranking for the shooting sport. She recently won gold at the 2018 ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany, in the 50 meter rifle category.
The Asian Games will be the second event for Alizadeh to carry the Iranian flag in the opening ceremony of an international tournament. She had the same honor in the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
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