Meet Blessing Akwasi Afrifah: Ghanaian-descent sprinter flying Israeli flag at the Paris Olympics
Israeli-born Ghanaian sprinter Blessing Akwasi Afrifah is making waves at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, representing Israel on the world’s biggest sporting stage with his stellar performance.
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Although his journey to the Paris Olympics was not ordinary due to citizenship challenges, he put up a splendid performance, finishing in fifth place in heat six of the men's 200m event.
This enabled him to qualify for the repechage round, a second chance for runners in individual races from the 200-meter dash up to the 1,500, as well as the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles - runners who didn’t automatically qualify out of their respective first round into the semifinals will have another shot to make the semis.
Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Afrifah’s parents are Ghanaian Akan immigrants who moved to Israel a decade before his birth.
His father worked at the Ghanaian embassy in Israel, while his mother was a cleaner.
Despite being born and raised in Israel, Afrifah faced numerous challenges to secure Israeli citizenship.
In a 2022 interview with Haaretz, he expressed frustration at being treated as a foreigner in his own country.
“People here in Israel made me ‘not an Israeli’ because my parents came from somewhere else. The minute you have citizenship, then you are considered Israeli, but if you don’t have it, you are not part of the ‘Israeliness’,” he said.
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After a long and arduous battle, including surviving a deportation attempt in 2010 and appealing to the government for citizenship, Afrifah finally secured Israeli citizenship in 2020. He subsequently served in the Israel Defense Forces in 2022.
In August 2022, the 20-year-old sprinter, born in Israel to West African parents, stunned favourite Letsile Tebogo to win the men's 200 metres by a whisker in 19.96 seconds at the world Under-20 championships in Colombia.
Tebogo drew comparisons to Usain Bolt when he coasted to victory in the 100m in a junior world record time of 9.91 on earlier in the competition but the Botswanan's hopes of a sprint double were dashed by Afrifah in a thrilling final.
Afrifah has since then risen through the ranks, becoming the first-ever Israeli to win a gold medal at the U-23 European Championship in 2023. He holds the Israeli national record for the 200m with a time of 20.95 seconds.