Parfait Hakizimana
Personal information
Born1988 (1988) (age 36)
Burundi
Sport
SportPara Taekwondo
Event61 kg
Coached byZura Mushambokazi

Parfait Hakizimana (born 1988) is a Burundian parataekwondo practitioner who currently resides in Rwanda. He will represent the Refugee Paralympic Team at the 2020 Summer Paralympics[1] in the under 61 kg category.[2]

Life

Hakizimana was born in Burundi and lived in a settlement camp as a child. He was shot in the arm when he was eight in an attack that also killed his mother. His father took him to a hospital where with basic care he recovered over two years.[3] He began learning taekwondo when he was sixteen. Hakizimana credits the sport with improving his outlook. He set up a martial arts club. When he was twenty his father died on a motorbike and he decided to leave the tribal conflict in Burundi.[3]

He emigrated to Rwanda and lives in the Mahama Refugee Camp in Rwanda. He went on to again teach his martial art skills in the camp.[4]

He began to compete in 2017 and he had some success.[5] Zura Mushambokazi became his coach. She is a national Taekwondo coach.[6] In 2021 he was able to travel to Kigali where he trained at the Amahoro Stadium.[3]

In June 2021, Hakizimana was chosen with four men and a woman to represent refugees at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo. The six will be led by the Chef de Mission Ileana Rodriguez who was previously a parathlete swimmer for the US in 2012.[1] The other five are Alia Issa and Ibrahim Al Hussein who are both from Syria and are based in Athens, the American-based Afghan refugee swimmer Abbas Karimi, the German-based Syrian refugee canoeist Anas Al Khalifa, and American based Iranian refugee discus thrower Shahrad Nasajpour.[1] He hoped to win a medal at the paralympics and to return to the refugee camp where he has a young daughter.[5] At the Games, Hakizimana withdrew from the repechage section due to an injury.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "IPC announces six athletes to compete for the Refugee Paralympic Team at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games". UNHCR. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  2. Park, Jun-Hee (30 January 2020). "Effect of the Artistic Value and Brand Asset of Taekwondo Performances Perceived by University Taekwondo Demonstration Player's". The World Society of Taekwondo Culture. 26: 85–103. doi:10.18789/jwstc.2020.26.85. ISSN 2233-453X. S2CID 213012357.
  3. 1 2 3 "Para taekwondo athlete Parfait Hakizimana teaches hope at Rwandan Refugee Camp". Tokyo 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  4. "Refugee taekwondo athlete hopes for more competition chances". www.insidethegames.biz. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Hope keeps heads up for Burundian refugee Paralympic athlete". UNHCR Rwanda. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  6. "Meet Zura Mushambokazi, first woman head coach of taekwondo national team". The New Times | Rwanda. 29 April 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  7. "Taekwondo kicks its way into Paralympics". Agence France-Presse. 2 September 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2021 via France 24.
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