Iranian weightlifter Yakta Jamali, only 17, "disappeared" yesterday (Thursday) during the last day of the World Youth Championship in Crete, with the team leaders believing that she has defected and is planning a new life in another country, similar to judoka Said Moulay.
Iranian media reported that Jamali "left the team hotel without informing anyone."
Officials at Iran's National Weightlifting Federation (IRIWF) spoke with Jamali's family, but no whereabouts were reported.
"I do not know what happened," IRIWF vice president Zahara Furamin told IRNA.
"Many believe she, like many before her, took the opportunity to leave Iran," the Iranwire website said.
Several members of the delegation stayed in Greece to look for her.
Jamali is considered the most successful athlete in the short history of weightlifting for women in Iran, having become the first world medalist of her country last year, when she won the bronze at the Uzbekistan Youth World Championships.
In the past year she has participated in three world championships, for young women (up to age 20) and one in youth (up to 17), and has won a total of three medals.
In Crete she won a silver medal in the hoisting style weighing 87 kg, and finished in fourth place overall.
17 years old Iranian weightlifter Yekta Jamali who won a Bronze medal at the 2021 Junior World Championships in the 87 kg weight division and a silver medal two days ago in Greece goes missing after the return of her team to Iran.
Suspected to have defected and asked for asylum.
pic.twitter.com/3JRzMlH7Na
- mina bai (@bai_mina) May 11, 2022
On social media, Jamali's friends wrote that she was not happy with her federation, and said she was upset by the low profits she received.
Weightlifting is a popular sport in Iran, and in the men's team the leading athletes can earn huge sums.
Until 2018, the regime in Iran banned women from taking part in weightlifting.
Only recently has a prominent athlete on the team appeared on Iran's state television channel and made unfounded remarks - some would say ridiculous - about the effects of weightlifting on women.
He claimed that lifting heavy weights could damage women's breasts and ovaries.
A handball player, paddler and two female footballers have fled Iran in recent months for political reasons and to wear a hijab forcibly, Iranwire reported.
About 20 Iranian athletes in a variety of sports, such as judoka Said Moulay, have emigrated in the past three years after refusing to return home from international competitions.
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