Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Lone Moroccan at Winter Olympics.


Samir Azzimani has plenty of reasons to be proud. Not only has he qualified for the Winter Olympics but he is the only Moroccan to do so. His chances of getting a medal are very small, but a natural optomist, Samir said in a recent interview that "There will be a guy from Ghana and also one from Senegal and if I beat them, I'll be the champion of Africa."

Samir Azzimani was born in Levallois (France) in October 22nd, 1977. Placed in a foster home for family reasons, Samir had the opportunity to go to a holiday camp at La Chapelle d’Abondance in the French Alpes. There, he discovered his passion for skiing. He was only 6 years old, but a dream was already growing in his mind: taking part in the Olympics.



Now his dream is a reality and it is a dream he has decided to share. He is travelling to Canada with eight secondary school children from Woippy, a depressed suburb of eastern French town Metz that made headlines for riots last month when youths torched cars and clashed with police after a young man died while trying to flee police on a scooter.

The View from Fez wishes Samir the best of luck in the Men's Downhill and Giant Slalom.



1 comment:

Kerstin Brand said...

Samir used to be my ski instructor in France a few years back so I am totally keeping my fingers crossed for him. Sadly very few people seem to have heard of him in Morocco. It would be nice if it was a bit better known that he has made it to the Olympics. Plus this could be good advertising for Oukaimeden & Ifran.