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Tina Rahimi has become the first female Muslim boxer selected to represent Australia at an Olympics after being named as one of 12 fighters to have qualified for Paris 2024.
Australia’s largest-ever boxing team is evenly split between men and women, a fitting statistic for an Olympics that will be the first in 128 years to achieve gender parity in terms of the number of athletes competing.
Rahimi, from Bankstown in Sydney’s south-west, was also the first female Australian boxer of her religion to compete at a Commonwealth Games when she won a bronze medal in the featherweight division (57 kilograms) in Birmingham in 2022.
She also won gold at the recent Pacific Games in Honiara, in the Solomon Islands, where she was the unanimous choice of all five judges in the final.
The sacrifices Rahimi makes to box while adhering to her faith are considerable. Asked whether it was uncomfortable boxing with arms and legs covered, wearing a full-length hijab under her protective headgear, she replied: “Oh god, it’s extremely hot. In the Solomon Islands, the humidity was insane. As soon as I put the head cover on, I was dripping sweat. But, like with fasting and training, I adjust.”
The holy month of Ramadan, during which time the Muslim faithful abstain from food and drink from dawn until sunset, coincided with this year’s IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in India.
Tina Rahimi is heading to the Paris Olympics.Credit: Louise Kennerley
“I had to get my running in before sunrise in order to keep up my training and water levels,” Rahimi said. “I could only do one session a day. I felt very fatigued, drained. But it’s part of my religion and so it’s important to me.”
Shedding kilograms to make the weight division can also create challenges – in some countries, it’s hard to find a women-only sauna.
But Rahimi’s occupation as a make-up artist has advantages.
“At last year’s world championships in Turkey, I had bruises all around my eyes,” she said. “But by the time I’d finished applying make-up, you couldn’t tell.”
Tina Rahimi: “At last year’s world championships in Turkey, I had bruises all around my eyes … But by the time I’d finished applying make-up, you couldn’t tell.” Credit: Louise Kennerley
Asked if she found any contradiction between beautifying her clients and reorganising the faces of her opponents, she responded with a tale.
“I sparred with a girl once,” she said. “I broke her nose but she already had breathing problems, so it wasn’t the result of my lack of discipline in the ring. I didn’t feel good about it, even if she already had problems. I ended up doing her make-up for her. As soon as it happened, I said, ‘You’re coming to my studio free of charge’.”
At 27, Tina will be competing in an Olympics at the same age her father was when he was deprived of representing Australia at a Games. Michael Rahimi was born in Iran but lived in Denmark before migrating to Australia. A former national freestyle wrestling champion in both Iran and Denmark, he made it a third country when he won the 90kg title in Australia in 1991.
He set his sights on the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, saying at the time: “I really want to represent Australia because it is a multicultural country and there are good people here.”
Tina Rahimi takes on England’s Sameenah Toussaint at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.Credit: Getty Images
However, Australia’s wrestling federation was sending athletes only in the 68kg and 74kg classes, so Michael shed weight to attempt the lower division and wrestle for the Oceania championship in Samoa. But as with earlier world championships and Commonwealth Games, he was unable to attract sponsorship and could not fund his travel.
Now, however, the taxpayer has helped send his daughter to world championships in Turkey and India, a Commonwealth Games and to the Pacific Games, where her peppery punching led to the Oceania crown.
The only parallel with her father’s era is that qualification for the Olympics is now back via Oceania, compared to a decade ago when boxers competed with the best of Asia.
Australia’s determined dozen includes Tokyo bronze medallist Harry Garside and Caitlin Parker, a world championships silver medallist and Australia’s first two-time female boxing Olympian. Teremoana jnr, the genial, confident Queenslander, has also qualified in the super-heavyweight division (92kg+).
Tina Rahimi’s father, Michael, wanted to compete at the Barcelona Olympics but could not raise enough funding for the trip.Credit: Louise Kennerley
With only one of Australia’s 13 boxers in Honiara not selected for Paris, it suggests qualification is easier and, therefore, the chances of winning an Olympic medal are harder. However, the path to the podium in Paris is shorter than in most other sports. A boxer may need to win only two bouts to make the semi-finals, meaning a guaranteed bronze medal. This raises the issue of cost per Olympic medal.
The Australian Sports Commission includes boxing with taekwondo and judo in its combat institute sports. They collectively received $340,000 of $20 million in a funding package for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics that was announced in July. The combat sports also received $375,000 from a further $5 million of funding in September, of which boxing’s allocation was $165,000. Boxing’s share of $25 million could be as low as $280,000 with 12 medal chances, compared with a team sport, such as men’s rugby sevens, which receives more funding, has more players and competes for just one medal.
An ASC spokesperson pointed out that the Honiara haul was recent and said an uplift in AIS funding would be announced soon, which may benefit the boxers.
That will be good news for Rahimi, who has already abandoned the make-up artist business for the brutal beauty of boxing, trading in the powder puffs for the heavy bags.
“I am now training twice a day for six days a week,” she said. “I can’t wait to get to Paris and represent Australia.”
Asked about going to the City of Love to fight, Fahimi said: “I might find love there but, in the meantime, my love of boxing will do. I fell in love with it the moment I started. I didn’t want to stop. It felt so good.”
She impresses as someone who has, for now, found a companion in the sweet science; a partner who is good if treated right and one who is with her all the time.
“It has taken me this far,” she said.
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