07/07/2012 World Olympic Dreams

Syria. Now it is time for World Olympic Dreams. Welcome to World

Olympic Dreams from Afghanistan. The The Incredibles Tory of a

double amputee and the sport which saved his life. I will meet the

real strong men of Kabul. Plus, the athletes risking their lives for

sport. The Afghan women's football team who play on in the face of

death threats. These athletes want to change how this country is seen

for over. Forever. For as long as I can remember the very word

Afghanistan has conjured up images of conflict and war fare. I have

been keen to come to Kabul to see for myself is somewhere amongst all

this they may be some support. The obvious place to start is with the

man who has almost single-handedly transformed the idea of the Afghan

athlete. This type wonder fighter it is beyond compare. His bronze

was a moment of NASA nor celebration, the like of which

Afghanistan has all too few of. -- national celebration. I am on my

way to meeting with my guide, a journalist and broadcaster. How big

a star is he? We do not have many champions of the last three decades

because of the war. There is so much publicity on television about

him. Publicity for telecommunications companies.

Everybody knows about him because he has been on the television so

much. It has become a cliche when Olympics athletes say that winning

a medal changes their life. But for him, it was true. He had a new car

and this fantastic apartment, from the President of Afghanistan. His

quality of life was transformed from Beijing, but for him and the

medals are were so much more than the personal wealth they have

brought him. On winning medals is becoming a habit for him. Last here

he consolidated his position with another bronze medal, proving his

first was not just a stroke of luck. Need for years on from Beijing, he

still uses this team, will he started out in the outskirts of

Kabul. A domestic house which has been converted. It is not even the

correct with for a proper tight one day match. He will fight plenty of

athletes in London with better training facilities than these. But

from what I saw his competitors would be foolish to underestimate

the man from Kabul. -- tae kwon do. From the moment his sport leaves

the floor, you cannot see it. An Olympic medal is always a turning

point for any athlete - the moment when years of hard work in private

in places like these become a matter of mass private and public

celebration. That is more true of this athlete than many. For him,

the private and public are the same thing. He believes that if he can

fight hard enough as an individual, his country might just be the

better for it. One of the many remarkable things about Kabul is

how normal things here scene. At times you forget there is a war on.

Like anywhere else, many Afghans have jobs to do, people to meet,

lives to leave. But it equally, this being Afghanistan, there are

reminders of the recent past around every corner. Of all the weird

sights in Kabul this place is probably the pinnacle. Other windy

hilltop in the middle of the city is almost an Olympic-sized swimming

full. It is one quarter full and it has a diving platform. It has been

he four years and the truth is that the Taliban would bring their

victims here, much them onto the board and I they shoot them they're

all from the end of the pool and the bodies would fall into that

water - hundreds of them apparently. It is pretty grim. On Afghanistan

still has a long way to go before swimming pools represent sport,

rather than conjuring up dark memories. But there are glimmers of

hope as well. Meet the Afghanistan water polo team. The squad, made up

of farmers, shopkeepers and soldiers, is the brainchild of a US

marine who is hoping they can qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games.

It is a tall order, there. This is what they are up against. One of

only about a dozen swimming pools in Afghanistan. It is outside, so

unusable in winter and the swimmers train here. The water polo players

have to find someone else. When I catch up with an there are in an

indoor pool as a guest of a local businessman. It is a one-off -

organised, we think, because we are filming and it is not going to plan.

Era no goals and no water polo ball. Someone has been sent there by one

and Hateley will have some sport to watch in a minute. Two. Eventually

a ball - albeit a football - turns up and training can get underway.

There is no tradition of the court exports in this landlocked country.

Three of the team have been killed in the war and the plan for a

month's training in America is blocked because of fears that some

of the team will defect. You can't help feeling it will be well be on

2016 before these players have a hope of holding their own

internationally. Even so, the Olympic medal in 2008 is proof

enough to these players that it can be done. In Afghanistan, perhaps

more than anywhere else in the world, sporting dreams survive

against overwhelming odds. The emergence of water polo and other

fledgling sports reveals wider truths about the struggle going on

in Afghanistan as a cold, something I am keen to know more about. Sport

means a lot after the fall of the Taliban. On the two major successes

Afghanistan had were the press and sport. They came from nowhere.

Cricket came out of the Ashes and then baby came as a phenomenon. On

these athletes with very few facilities tried to

themselves. Express your identity a different way and introduce a new

image for Afghanistan other than the usual one associated with war

and drugs. Redefining what it means to be not just an Afghan mac an

Afghan athlete is also what is driving 18-year-old Malik Mohammed.

I lost my leg in a minefield from Russian minds. It was two bombs.

end a row? Yes. On a those two Homs, planted before he was even born,

changed his life unimaginably. After injury and hurricane the

realisation that he was now part of a kind of underclass. In

Afghanistan the disabled are all too often regarded as invisible or

even worthless. We have one million disabled and paralysed in

Afghanistan. They cannot work at all do anything in Kabul city. This

is a big problem between the disabled and the not disabled.

Malik was flown to the US for treatment. Several years of

American medical care and education changed his life again. He returned

to Kabul, not just as a track athlete but also as a swimmer with

a sense of self-worth which If I didn't do sport, I would be a

simple person, at home and doing nothing except watching TV. Now, I

am an athlete, people call me a hero. I am proud of myself. It is

amazing what sport can do for people in Afghanistan. In the dates

and months after he lost his legs, the chances were he was going to

become almost a pariah in Afghan society. -- days. Now, he is a hero

for the whole country. This summer in London, he hopes to represent

Afghanistan in the 2012 Paralympic Games. He will be banishing some

personal demons for sure. But if he can change what it means to have a

disability here, then perhaps the biggest impact from his efforts in

London will be felt back at home. There are so many sporting stories

to be told in Afghanistan. The lead has been lifted here. Afghans are

throwing themselves into all kinds of sports. Not all the friends I

knew. There is one craze in particular which, like cricket,

went on doing the Taliban but is now booming. Tell me about body-

building. Why is that such a big sport in Afghanistan? Maybe you are

not asking the right person because I do not have muscles. But after

the fall of the Taliban, it is one of the favourite sport in

Afghanistan. Every Afghan, especially the youngest, go to the

June. He is not a new thing. -- -- gym. This has been going on for

generations. Even in the Times of the Taliban. You had to cover parts

of yourself. But now, you can show your body. And when you go and

propose to a girl, one of the criteria is having a good body in

Afghanistan. You need to have good muscles to get a good woman.

If that is true, then these guys should have no trouble getting a

good wife. This is lunchtime in Kabul in one of many weightlifting

gins. These bodybuilders have put on a show specifically for us. I

have been in plenty in my life but I have never seen anything quite

like this. All of these bodybuilders regularly competing

contests that take place right across the country. Culminating

every year in the Mr Afghanistan competition. Contestants are scored

on different parts of the body but knowing how to flex on demand is

crucial. Check this out. 20 years of rowing, my legs are about that

big. Check out this. Bicep, my fingers do not meet! This man could

have been the next Rohullah Nikpai. His first sport was taekwondo.

Before too long, body-building became his obsession. It is a

passion which climaxed with him being crowned Mr Afghanistan in

2009. Now, as a trainer, he is uniquely placed to know what makes

Where there are prizes, of course there is cheating. Notably steroids.

These bodybuilders all say they rely on weight lifting the loan to

build up their muscles. But they know plenty of people here willing

to turn to chemicals to gain an advantage. Why is this place called

the Bush bizarre? A after the former President of the United

States. I was brought to a market where steroids are forced sale.

Here you can get everything. Steroids, wait gainer. His the

something people are worried about? There is not so much knowledge or

publicity about this. I have heard quite a lot of reports. Recently,

it said you can die of using too much steroids. That was huge. It

was learning for all people. Doping is a very worrying part of the

sport. Testing is still only sporadic and, while there remains a

real chance of not being caught, plenty of bodybuilders will

continue to use. You are never too far from signs of conflict in Kabul.

This was the gym where we were just feeling though -- filming those

bodybuilders. Next door, that is where the Taliban launched an

attack a few months ago. That was on the American embassy which is a

few blocks that way. You can cease -- still see the ball -- bullet

holes on the top of that building. Kabul is one of the most dangerous

cities in the world. Moving around, you encounter checkpoints every few

hundred metres. Understandably, they don't like being filled. In

Kabul, you are constantly aware how dangerous things can be here. But,

equally, life in a high-security world can also become fearing

normal. Very quickly. We have been here at 2-3 days and you get used

to it. It is worrying how you do. You think, to begin with, it is a

complete culture shock. Now, it is normal. Armed guards, a guy comes

to the window to see what you are doing and you can then carry on.

Even though my main focus in Afghanistan has been sport, you are

constantly hit with the evidence of the political side of this

country's recent past. This stadium, if you have seen pictures of it,

they are unlikely to have been present. People used to bring

people here to execute them in front of crowds and even stone

women to death out on the pitch. Nowadays, there is progress. There

is a lovely new turf pitch and the stadium is the hub of the whole

sports complex which aims at improving act -- Afghan team sports.

Among them, the Afghanistan women's football team. Women's sport was

not just restricted under the Taliban, it was completely banned.

The contrast between the present day and just 11 years ago it is at

its starkest here. As recently as 2001, any of these women could have

been executed for what we are filming their undoing today. --

filming then doing. But it is not without controversy. Even now, the

role of women in Afghanistan is a battle that is far from settled.

Many of the players here have had death threats. Each of the women

has their own story of sacrifice to tell for the love of the game that

This is where progress in sport is at its most delicate. Women's Sport

happens in Afghanistan, and you could say, despite public attitudes,

not because of them. But even so, these team-mate remain committed.

It is beginning to play internationals overseas and home

matches have drawn surprising What happens with the women's

football team, more than any of the other athletes I encountered, will

be a barometer of the bigger story here in Afghanistan. In five or ten

years, this team may well no longer exist. Or it may be the Afghan of

women's football team has gone from To round off the trip, you could

not get a more Afghan backdrop then the presidential palace that was

ruined in the civil war. But you never know with Afghanistan. You

could come back in six months and it could be razed to the ground or

it could be reinvented as a government building or some sort of

luxury hotel. You just don't know. Then I think back to the few days -

- last few days, if it has been amazing to get under the skin of

the place and witness the truth about Afghan sport. Two amazing

athlete, cutting Edge, an inspiration to the whole nation and

generations of people coming up behind them and realising that it

is possible to go to the Olympics or Paralympics and win medals. And

then you think of the more rough and ready reality of Afghan sport,

the cricket that goes on in the streets and the towns, and the

chaos of the Afghan water polo team. The only sign-off is that they can