Meet Kashmiri taekwondo athlete Afreen Hyder, looking to represent India at Olympics

Indian taekwondo player Afreen Hyder is one of the athletes from Jammu & Kashmir who are breaking down the barriers and creating a name for themselves on the national and international stage. Hyder recently represented India at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in South Korea, and though she did not win a medal, she earned praises for her impressive performance. Hyder now wants to win a medal for the nation at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. 

Who is Afreen Hyder?

Hyder was born and raised in Jammu and Kashmir. She went to Delhi Public School (Srinagar) for her schooling before moving to Delhi for her Bachelor of Arts programme. While at school, she excelled academically, but when she reached class eleven, she was forced to decide whether to pursue engineering or sports. She took up sports as her career, quickly rising to the top of the Indian taekwondo scene.

Hyder said she never thought about pursuing taekwondo professionally as she first started training in the sport after seeing children participate in it in her school. The athlete said it was only after winning her first medal at the national level in 2010 that she started taking the sport seriously and it soon turned into her passion. 

"I never thought of pursuing it professionally. I saw children training in Taekwondo in school and thought it was cool. So I decided to train too. I won my first ever medal at the national level in 2010, a gold medal and since then, this sport has been my passion," Hyder was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. 

Hyder had her first taekwondo coaching from Atul Pangotra in Jammu before relocating to Madhya Pradesh for additional training. The youngster is presently receiving her training at one of the best academies in India in Gurugram. Hyder, while speaking to ANI, expressed her gratitude to her first coach Atul and said he taught her a lot. 

"In Jammu, Atul sir taught me a lot. Later, I got my training for a year in one of the best academies in Bhopal. Currently, I am training in Gurugram, which also has one of the finest academies of India," Hyder added. 

Hyder is currently preparing for World Championships and Asian Games following which she will shift her focus to the 2024 Olympics. The athlete is currently ranked No 91 in the world but wants to improve her standing on the table. She is India's No 1-ranked player at the moment. 

"My current world rank is 91, I want to raise it. For it, we have to play in tournaments. I went to Iran and Riyadh for these. Women's championships were held in November last year in Riyadh. Such tournaments give us a lot of experience and opportunities to win a medal," Hyder said.