An Australian athlete was denied the chance to compete in taekwondo at the Paris Olympics because of a border dispute involving Australia-based Afghan refugees who were blocked from entering a tiny Pacific nation for a qualifying tournament.
Saffron Tambyrajah won the gold medal in the women’s 49kg class at an Oceania qualifying tournament in the Solomon Islands in April – but because she competed against just one rival, World Taekwondo allocated Australia’s quota spot to another nation.
The event was short of competitors only because two refugee athletes had been turned away by Solomon Islands border officials in the country’s capital, Honiara, and sent back to Brisbane.
According to sources not publicly allowed to discuss the matter, the athletes had fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan and are now permanent residents in Australia.
Australian Taekwondo launched a last-ditch appeal just weeks before the Games with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the Swiss-based arbitration authority that resolves major disputes.
Tambyrajah and world-class compatriot Juliet Lahood were the two leading candidates to be nominated for Australia in the division if the country had been awarded an Olympics quota spot.
But because a minimum of four athletes from different countries had not competed in the 49kg category, World Taekwondo deemed the quota spot would be reallocated to another nation.
Tambyrajah posted an emotional message on Instagram last month, claiming she might not be travelling to Paris, hinting at the behind-the-scenes attempts to get her there.
“I’ve spent most of my life chasing this dream, and to have it taken away from me is something that I’ll never be able to accept,” she wrote.
“This is a harsh reminder of the unpredictable nature of high-performance sport; you can be the perfect athlete and do everything right, and still not have things pan out the way that you’d hoped.”
She went on to wish Australia’s taekwondo team the best for the Olympics.
CAS ruled against Australian Taekwondo and in favour of World Taekwondo, although the judgment is yet to be made public.
The urgency of the situation was known before the Honiara event, with Oceania officials fearing Tambyrajah’s division would probably be short on entrants without the refugee athletes who train in Australia.
The refugees were also denied their own chance of qualifying for the Olympics, with 37 athletes competing at Paris 2024 in the IOC refugee team. If they had managed to win a gold medal in Honiara, they could have travelled to compete in France.
The refugees are in Australia on protected visas, but Solomon Islands border officials deemed they couldn’t travel to the taekwondo tournament because there was confusion over their status in the country.
Saffron Tambyrajah at the Oceania qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games.Credit: Instagram
In an email to its members obtained by this masthead, Taekwondo Australia said: “We are disappointed with CAS’s decision not to uphold our appeal.
“We firmly believe that we made the right decision in pursuing this appeal. We are committed to advocating for the interests of our athletes both now and in the future, and our priority has always been to ensure a fair and equitable process in accordance with the Olympic spirit.”
The other three Australians to win their divisions at Honiara – Stacey Hymer (women’s 57kg), Leon Sejranovic (men’s 80kg) and Bailey Lewis (men’s 58kg) – were all nominated to the Olympic team and will feature when the taekwondo competition begins in Paris on Wednesday.
Tambyrajah, who turned 24 on Thursday, left Perth to move to Melbourne to further her career and aim for an Olympic appearance in Paris.
She used to spar with males until the age of 16 and made the final eight at last year’s world championships.
Australia has won only one gold medal in the sport, with Lauren Burns claiming victory in Sydney in the same category Tambyrajah had hoped to qualify for.
Tambyrajah had already been dragged into a controversy earlier this year when Lahood disputed her non-selection for the Honiara event.
Lahood’s case was rejected by the National Sports Tribunal, an Australian arbitration body for sporting matters, clearing Tambyrajah to win Oceania gold.
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