Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    BAGHDAD, July 22 (Xinhua) -- "My ultimate dream is to participate in the Olympic Games and, for me, what would happen in Beijing tops everything else in the world," judoka Ali Muhammad Fakher spoke of his enthusiasm for the most honorable sports event, hoping sport would help ease and eradicate the hatred spawned by sectarian conflicts.

    The U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and the ensuing unrest and bloodshed created by extremists had great impact on the country's sports activities, with athletes and sport officials intimidated, kidnapped or killed.

    Thirteen of 15 taekwondo players were found executed in June 2007, one year after their abduction on a highway in the Anbar province in western Iraq.

    Former Iraqi Olympic committee president Ahmed al-Hijiya along with more than 30 officials and bodyguards were taken away in broad daylight by dozens of armed men from a meeting in Baghdad two years ago.

    Hijiya and some senior Olympic committee officials remain missing.

    Fakher was spared the experience of being intentionally targeted. But, as many people in Baghdad he might have been caught in crossfire. Fakher once found himself caught in a fierce gun battle between militants and the U.S. troops when he was heading home after finishing training. The car he was riding hit by bullets, but he luckily left unhurt.

    In Iraq, where unemployment rate hovers in double-digits, a person taking up sport usually find it hard to earn his bread.

    Fakher is lucky again that he landed a job in the police force. Showing his interior ministry ID, the curl-haired mid-sized young man said he is now not required to patrol the streets, rather, can focus on judo training while being paid by the police department.

    He said athletes are draining abroad due to lack of security, funding for career development and income for livelihood.

    Since its debut at the 1948 London Olympics, the Iraqi team only has won a weightlifting bronze medal at the 1960 Rome Games.

    "Iraqi sportsmen have failed to bring enough medals by participating in the regional and world tournaments despite we have very talented athletes. It is because we don't have as much chance to participate in training camps or compete with foreign teams, and can barely catch up with the sports development of the world," he said.

    The hardship failed to deter Fakher from continuing to be dedicated to judo which he has practiced for 10 years.

    The 19-year-old youth developed his liking for judo when he was a kid. Fakher used to be a neighborhood street gladiator among children, yet he swore he had never bullied the weak.

    Sport now is perhaps the only thing which can make the heavily divided nation feel they have joy to share.

    The victories of the Iraqi soccer team brought onto streets tens of thousands of cheering crowds in Baghdad. Regardless of sectarian and ethnic identities, they were hugging, dancing, shouting, blowing horns of cars, and shooting -- not at each other but into the air.

    Fakher said he finds pride and value in being a sportsman.

    "In Iraq, only sport is clean. I mean free from any kind of hatred. We athletes -- Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and even Christians -- train together like a family. All Iraqis, no matter how many problems between them, would finally have the feeling that they are Iraqis. So whoever would gain a medal, it would be a pride for all. That's what we need, a common feeling."

    Not so popular as a soccer star, Fakher, nevertheless, is a hero in his neighborhood.

    "My only fan that I feel is those people in my neighborhood. I am a star there, only there," he said. "But the only thing I care for is what the sport does to our people. It is the only thing that unify our divided people. So I don't mind whether or not I have a lot of fans. What I am trying to do is to make my people from all sects and ethnics happy so that we will feel like one family just like we have been doing for thousands of years."

    Iraq would send a 30-odd delegation including seven athletes to the Beijing Olympic Games running Aug. 8-24.

    Yet, the team could miss the event as the International Olympic Committee denies the legitimacy of an interim council designated by the Iraqi government following an abrupt dismissal of its national Olympic committee.

    Fakher said he is aware of the possibility, "but I have a great feeling that I will be able to take part in the Olympic Games. I am optimistic."

    Except the knowledge that there are a lot of people in China and they are polite, Fakher said he knows nothing else about China, not even the Great Wall as he was asked.

    Nevertheless, he expects that he "would see something surprising and astonishing there."