Meisam Rafiei

Meisam Rafiei (30 years old)[1][2] is an Iranian-born Icelandic martial artist in taekwondo.[3]

He was the world youth champion in taekwondo in 2002 while representing Iran.[3] He also won two World Military Championships for Iceland, in 2006 and 2008, and in 2017 was ranked 59th in the world in the 58-kilogram class.[1]

He has competed multiple times in international tae kwon do championships, including World and European championships and he was a Nordic countries champion in 2016.[4]

In January 2017, he was escorted off a plane while traveling with the Icelandic taekwondo team to the United States for the US Open. Born in Iran, he was stopped due to the travel ban by Donald Trump.[4] He called the policy "racist" afterwards, stating that if he had been British-Iranian or Australian-Iranian, he would have been allowed to travel.[5] On 1 February 2017, he was informed he could travel to the US to compete.[6][7]


References

  1. 1 2 "Iranian-born taekwondo player denied U.S. entry".
  2. ↑ "Iran-born taekwondo competitor denied entry to U.S.: ‘Made me feel like a criminal’".
  3. 1 2 Hafstað, Vala (31 January 2017). "Icelandic Athlete Denied Entry to US".
  4. 1 2 "Icelandic tae kwon do champion barred from US flight as he's born in Iran".
  5. ↑ "Exclusive: Donald Trump's immigration ban is 'racist', says first known sportsperson refused US entry".
  6. ↑ "Rafiei has received permission to travel to the USA".
  7. ↑ "Iranian-born taekwondo athlete to enter U.S.".
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