Muslim Countries in 2014 Olympics

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

A member of Iran’s team staff holds a national flag as he watches Iran’s Seyed Sattar Seyd (R) competes during the men’s cross-country 15km classic event at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics February 14, 2014. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

If you’re trying to root for athletes from the Ummah, here’s a list of athletes from predominantly Muslim countries. Since the Olympics are being held in Sochi, Russia, let’s start with the Eastern European region. The country of Albania is represented only in the Alpine Skiing event, by Suela Mehilli and Erjon Tola. Azerbaijan also has a couple of Alpine skiers, Gaia Bassani Antivari and Patrick Brachner, as well as a couple of figure skaters, Alexei Sitnikov and Julia Zlobina. The country of Bosnia & Herzegovina is represented in several skiing events, most plentifully in the Alpine Skiing category by Igor Laikert, Zana Novakovic, and Marko Rudic. They have a couple of Cross Country skiers: Tanja Karisik and Mladen Plakalovic.

In Central Asia, Iran has an Olympic contingent of five athletes. Forough Abbasi and Mohammad Kiyadarbandsari are competing in the Alpine Skiing event. Farzaneh Rezasoltani, Seyed Sattar Seyd, and Hossein Saveh Shemshaki are all competing in the Cross Country Skiing event. Turkey is sporting a contingent of six people. They have two figure skaters, Alisa Agafonova and Alper Ucar. They have two Cross Country skiers, Kelime Cetinkaya and Sabahattin Oglago. And they have two Alpine Skiers, Tugba Kocaaga and Emre Simsek.

Kyrgyzstan’s lone entrant is Alpine Skier Dmitry Trelevski. Tajikistan also has but one contestant, Alpine Skier Alisher Qudratov. And Uzbekistan has sent a trio of athletes to the Games, including Figure Skaters Artem Voronov and Misha Ge, and Alpine Skier Kseniya Grigoreva.

Remaining predominantly Muslim countries include Lebanon, with two Alpine Skiers representing them (Alexandre Mohbat and Jacky Chamoun), Morocco, who also has a contingent of two Alpine Skiers (Adam Lamhamedi and Kenza Tazi), and Pakistan, with a lone Alpine Skier representing them (Muhammad Karim).

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