Palestine’s Valerie Tarazi on Olympic flagbearing, why she was hounded in Paris and being Christian at the Islamic Games

Join the Miguel Delaney team: Inside Football Join the Miguel Delaney Inside newsletter to get exclusive access and unparalleled insight. Football NewsletterJoin the Miguel Delaney inside Football newsletterDuring last summer’s Paris Olympic Games, Palestine’s flagbearer Valerie Tarazi couldn’t walk through the Village without being hassled, “to the point where it was actually an issue,” The reason for the recall was unusual. Each nation had their own pin badge, and for the athletes who lived in the Olympic Village it was a way to pass time. It was a very popular game that turned the athletes of small nations into celebrities.“We were actually getting annoyed,” She laughs. “Because Palestine’s pins were so sought-after, we had people bombarding us all the time. And I was just trying to walk to do something, to go eat – like, I’m trying to eat, stop asking me for pins!”Tarazi wears her Palestinian flag proudly and often uses her body to apply face paint or nail varnish. It is therefore not surprising that Tarazi felt love everywhere she went in Paris. She tells a story of making friends with members of the New Zealand women’s rugby team in the Village food hall. Tarazi received a phone call from the New Zealand team after their gold medal match. open image in galleryTaraza with the then International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach in the Athlete’s Village in Paris (Getty Images)“I got a call at 10.30 at night saying, ‘Val, we just won, you’ve got to come celebrate with us.’ I was like, ‘What?! I race in 36 hours, I cannot go out right now’.” The Kiwis met her the following morning at 7am. “The whole team came, dressed in full gear, they had their gold medals around their necks and they gave me their game-winning jersey, all signed. And when I raced my race, I got a video afterwards of them all sitting on a bus watching me swim.”Tarazi speaks to The Independent via video call, from the Islamic Solidarity Games, which are a compressed version of the Olympics, with 57 nations participating in 21 sports. It is more like the Commonwealth Games. The participating countries are all members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which has the stated aim of uniting countries of the Muslim World. Open image in galleryValerie tarazi competes in the 200m Individual Medley with the Palestine flag on both her face and arms (Getty Images). She is speaking just two days after she won a dramatic Bronze medal, beating two rivals to the wall. Standing on the podium at a moment when her extended family members and their communities were suffering was an emotional experience.“I come from one of the oldest families in Palestine, so, unfortunately, I have a lot of family stuck in Gaza right now. My house is in [south] Gaza, and thank God, last we heard, it’s still standing, which is crazy. We don’t have a lot of communication just because things are what they are right now.”Tarazi was welcomed warmly in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this month as she had been in Paris. “We have volunteers signing Dammi Falastini every single time we walk in the Village. It’s very heartwarming, because through all the chaos in the world – it’s just not getting better – but we know that we have the love and support to bring a smile to our face in some dark times.”Tarazi, who grew up in Illinois, excelled at racing for Auburn University Alabama. The 26 year-old athlete qualified to represent Palestine through her grandmother and made a commitment two years earlier when she competed for the nation at the Arab Games. Open image in galleryTarazi poses with Palestine fans at Charles de Gaulle Airport, before the Paris Games. (AFP/Getty).“People are always like, ‘You didn’t represent Team USA because you weren’t good enough’,” She says “I’m like, well, actually at 15 years old I was 68th in the US but I was top 100 in the world, so I was still very elite at a very young age. I like to throw that out there because I don’t like people to think, ‘Oh, well it was easier to make Team Palestine’. No, I always wanted to represent Palestine, it was just really difficult on how to do that. “One, because how do you prove you’re Palestinian when my family’s been there since literally the year 400? We don’t have deeds to our land. It’s just our land. So my parents figured out the paperwork, and with my last name being a very old Palestinian name [Tarazi is a Christian clan], it wasn’t a huge question, but it was just getting in contact with the right people.”In her career as a swimming instructor, she met Tarazis around the world. “We’re very deep-rooted everywhere and it’s really funny because I’m big on Instagram, so wherever I go I try and update, like, ‘Here are my next three travel plans’, because I like when people reach out. I had Tarazi family in Paris, in Dubai, in Riyadh, all reach out to me like, ‘Oh we need to meet up’. I was in Australia this summer on family vacation and Tarazis were like, ‘We have to meet you!’”She was one of eight Palestinian athletes who carried the flag during the opening ceremony at the Olympic Games on the Seine River. “There’s a picture of all of us on the boat with no smile on our face, and it was our way of showing the world that we’re here and we’re strong and we’re present, but we’re not here celebrating. We are here to represent all of those people in the world who have died and been murdered and everything in between. That’s not, ‘Oh my gosh, look at us’. No, we’re the face of the country, we have the honour of being there.”Tarazi holding the Palestinian Flag standing next to her fellow athletes. (Getty Images). “Christians and Muslims have so much in common and are so welcoming. I think actually some of the best people I’ve ever met in my life are from, in general, the Middle East – the nicest, kindest people. So there’s never a ‘Oh, why is Valerie competing at the Games, she’s Christian’. No, we are here to welcome everyone.”This is her message: sport can be powerful for good. It can shine a bright light into the darkness. She learned that from her experiences in representing Palestine and the reactions to which she was subjected all over the globe.“I always say the biggest honour that I could ever have is raising a flag and being the voice of the Palestinians when a lot of Palestinian voices just don’t get heard. For some reason, being an athlete makes us very humane, and … sports unites all. It’s like the one common factor that no matter what walk of life you’re in, no matter your background, that’s what you have in common. If that makes us humane, then it’s a way of uniting us.”
2025-11-18 16:05:35