Breaking out: Taliban survivor living her dream

Olympics are all about triumph of human resilience and Afghan break dancer Manizha Talash embodies this spirit. Three years after fleeing the Taliban, she is now all set to perform gravity-defying moves as part of the IOC’s refugee squad in Paris. The 21-year-old crossed the border into Pakistan after Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 before settling in Spain as a refugee the following year. “I am living my dream. I never imagined that it could be so beautiful,” said Talash, who stumbled upon breaking while scrolling through a social media post as a teenager in Kabul.

Chilean TT player makes debut at 58

Table tennis player Zeng Zhiying left China in 1989, the same year of the Tiananmen Square massacre, to teach the sport in northern Chile. Fast-forward 35 years, she will debut in the Olympics at age 58 under the name she adopted in the South American nation. Tania Zeng, who became famous in Chile after winning a bronze medal at the Pan American Games in Santiago last year, retired from table tennis long ago. Her dream of becoming a professional athlete returned during the pandemic. Her pinnacle will be reached in Paris.