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  • Changing face - Ala'a Hikmat, the lone woman on Iraq's Olympic team, symbolizes new era

    07/22/2004 2:11:10 PM PDT · by the_devils_advocate_666 · 7 replies · 580+ views
    The Boston Globe ^ | 7-21-2004 | Thanassis Cambanis
    BAGHDAD -- Carrying the symbolic dreams of a new Iraq on her shoulders, Ala'a Hikmat sprints around a garbage-strewn dirt track during her evening practice, hopping over a yellow hose-pipe at every turn. The 19-year-old runner from Baghdad, the only woman in Iraq's 45-member delegation to Athens, will compete at the Olympics next month against a vastly faster field in the women's 100- and 200-meter races. She doesn't expect to win. But her path to the Olympics -- and the exceptional cheer and optimism she's brought to bear on a year of frustrating training in an uncertain war zone --...